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EXCURSION GUIDE
OF THE
VIRGINIA MIDLAND RAILWAl'
THE SHORT-LINE THROUGH-CAR ROUTE
BETWEEN THE
NORTH AND SOUTH.
THE VIRGINIA SPRINGS,
WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA-H AM) I-
NORTH GEORGIA
SUMMER RESORTS.
JJ. 0J I %!/
ISSUED UV ^ -
THE VIRGINIA MIDLAND RAILWAY.
1882.
Copyright, 18S2, by the \'irginia Midland Railway.
CONTENTS.
Officers df the Virginia Midland Railway. ... vi
Preface vii-x
Washington City i
Midland Virginia 2
Alexandria 3
On to Manassas 4
Manassas Village 5
The Manassas Division 6
Front Royal 7
The Switzerland of Virginia S
Riverton and the Luray Caverns 10
Strasburg 11
Inducements to Immigrants 12
Return to the Main Stem, etc 13
Warrenton 13
The FaiKiiiier White Sulphur Springs 14
Culpepper 15
Mitchell's and Rapidan i6
Water Power along the Virgin:;! Mi<lland Kaihvay.. 17
Orange 17
Orange Court House— The Wilderness 18
Montpelier 18
Gordonsville 19
Somerset and Barboursville 20
Charlottesville 20
The Miller School 22
Grape Culture and Wine Manufacture 22
The C. & O. R. R.—The Virginia Springs and Sum-
mer Resorts 24
Nelson and Amherst Counties . . 26
Lynchburg 28
Lumber, Sumac, Oak Bark, Small Fruits, etc 30
Summer Resorts on the N. & W. and R. & A. R.
Railroads 34
The Franklin Division 35
Pittsylvania County 36
Danville 36
Danville & New River Railroad 37
The Mountain Resorts of Western North Carolina.. 38
The Sparkling Catawba Springs 39
Glen Alpine Springs 40
Piedmont Springs 40
Mount Mitchell 41
Swannanoa Gap 41
Asheville 42
The Warm Springs 43
The Cleveland Mineral Springs 44
Northeastern Georgia 44
Conclusion 45
The Tourist Guide for 1S82 46-48
Round Trip Tickets by the Virginia Midland R'y... 49
Condensed Schedule and Through-Car Service 50
ILLUSTRATIONS.
page
C lifton Forge Frontispiece
Headpiece i
Clifton, Va 4
Broad Run Station 6
Horse Shoe Bend 7
Deep Cut, Dismal Hollow 9
N'irginia Midland Railway Bridge at Riverton ' 10
In Thoroughfare Gap ii
Montpelier, Va 19
Bird's-Eye View of Charlottesville, Va 20
Museum at the University of Virginia 21
Footpiece 23
Kanawha Falls 25
Griffith's Knob 27
Railway Bridge across Canal at Lynchburg, Va 29
Railway Bridge across James River at Lynch-
burg, \'a 30
Panther Gap 31
Lovers' Leap 32
' Hawks' Nest 33
Virginia Midland Railway Station at Danville 37
From Richmond Hill 38
View Looking towards Moore's Cut 39
View above Henry's Station 40
Alexanders 41
White Rock 42
Looking Up the French Broad 43
The Rapids in the French Broad 44
The Virginia Midland Railway.
GENERAL OFFICE: ALEXANDRIA, VA.
OFFICERS:Hon. JnO. S. Barbour, President.
CoL T. M. R. Talcott, General Manager.
Peyton Randolph, Assistant General Manager.
W. M. S. Dunn, Engineer and Superintendent.
A. Pope, General Passenger Agent.
M. Slaughter, Assistant General Passenger Agent.
PREFACE
THE aim of this publication is to give the reader, in brief space
and compact form, some idea of what the Virginia Midland
Railway presents in its course from the capital of the nation to its
terminus at Danville, on the border of North Carolina. First, to show
that the Midland Railway is the natural and proper outlet of that
huge volume of travel which the Baltimore & Ohio and the Pennsyl-
vania Railroads pour into Washington City. Second, to demonstrate
(as the schedules appended to this volume prove) that it is the
Short Line, par excellence, of travel traffic from North to South, and
vice versa. Third, to establish beyond dispute, that no other route
to the great watering places of Virginia and the sublime scenery of
Western North Carolina can compete with the Virginia Midland
Railway. Fourth, to place in clear light before the reader of what-
ever character— tourist, health-seeker, investor, miner, farmer— the
attractive nature of a route which, from beginning to end, pursues
the beautiful and airy uplands that lie at the base of the Blue Ridge
and other Virginia mountains. The physical features of this region
so blessed of heaven, its history, its battlefields, its water-courses, its
farming lands, its pastures and meadows, its mines, minerals and ores,
its towns and villages, its industries, its orchards and its vineyards
—
in brief, all that pertains to its past and present, or at least so much
of it as may be compressed into a half an hour's reading on the train
or at the station, will herein be found.
From Washington we go to Alexandria, there to muse a while
amidst the ancient churches and storied dwellings that tell of Wash-
ington and his compeers. Passing through Fairfax, we cross Bull
PREFACE.
Run and pause on the red plateau of Manassas, the scene of
two of the most memorable battles of the war of Secession. Thence
on the Manassas Division, we thread the gfloomy defiles of Thorouofh-
fare Gap and emerge upon the bright and abounding fields of Fau-
quier, only to be again lost in the dark, winding mazes of the Blue
Ridge Pass near Front Royal. Here, in this thrifty village, we are in
the heart of " Mosby's Confederacy."
South of F'ront Royal there is a tier of counties, lying imme-
diately at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains, cut off from rail and
])ut little known. So fertile are they and so beautiful is their scenery
that to one of these counties the appropriate name has been given
of the " Switzerland of Virginia." West of Front Royal is River-
ton, a pretty little centre of industry, where the two branches of the
Shenandoah River unite, and where the Manassas Division of the
Virginia Midland Railway intersects the Shenandoah Valley Railroad,
only twenty-eight miles from the famous Luray Cavern. Further
west at Strasburo-, a town of German oriofin, as its name indicates,
the Manassas Division unites with the Harper's Ferr)^ and Valley
branch of the B. & O. R, R. The gigantic shoulder of the Massa-
nutton Mountain, towering above Strasburo-, forms one of the most
attractive features of this section.
Some account is given of the exertions heretofore made, and
still being made, by the Virginia Midland Company to induce immi-
grants to settle in Virginia ; and then, returning to the main line at
Manassas, we pass by Bristoe, Brentsville and Catlett's to Warrenton
Junction. Nine miles off, on a branch road, is the gay town of War-renton— one of the prettiest in Virginia— and six miles away are the
W^arrenton White Sulphur Springs, which are beyond question the
most attractive resort in this part of the State. Culpepper— the
home of the " Minute Men," of Revolutionary fame, and the scene of
many a hard-fought battle during the late war— is next reached.
Then comes Mitchell's Station, in the immediate vicinity of Slaugh-
ter's Mountain, where a battle of importance was fought, and we then
enter the lovely vale of Rapidan River. Turning aside for a mo-ment to glance at the numerous rivers and minor streams crossed bythe Virginia Midland Railway, and to study the water powers which
they develop, we enter Orange County, from which a narrow-gauge
road leads to the battlefield of the Wilderness and to Fredericksburg.
PREFACE. IX
In Orange County is Montpelier, the home of President Madison—a beautiful place, and well worth visiting. In Orange also is Gordons-
ville, a flourishing village, where, until very recently, the Virginia
Midland united with the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad.
Somerset and Barboursville— stations on the newly-constructed
link between Orange and Charlottesville— are passed before we
enter the splendid county of Albemarle. Much space is given to
this county, to its university town, its great museum of natural history,
its fine stock farms, its little-known but important school for the edu-
cation of poor boys, and its growing industry of wine-making from
native grapes, which has already assumed such large proportions.
At Charlottesville the Virginia Midland Railway intersects the
great highway to the Virginia Springs, the Chesapeake & Ohio Rail-
road. A hurried description of these Springs, of the towns and vil-
lages, the great furnaces and the grand scenery for which this railroad
is remarkable, is given. Coming back to the Virginia Midland Rail-
way, we pass through the counties of Nelson and Amherst, where
the justly-celebrated pippin and other apples are grown to as much
perfection as in Albemarle ; and where, more particularly in Amherst,
the development of iron has assumed so much importance of late
years.
Lynchburg, celebrated the world over for its tobacco, and
destined to become no less celebrated hereafter for its iron manufac-
tures, is next reached. The timber in Campbell and the adjoining
counties, the oak bark, sumac, small fruits, etc., that abound in all the
counties through and near which the Virginia Midland Railway
passes, are duly noticed.
At Lynchburg the Virginia Midland Railway intersects two
other roads of great importance—the Norfolk & Western Railroad
and the Richmond & Alleghany Railroad. The numerous Summer
resorts, the natural curiosities, and the picturesque scenery upon these
roads are taken into account and we pass on to the Franklin Division
of the Virginia Midland Railway. The ores that are found upon
this Division, and the scenery at Rocky Mount Village, the county
seat of Franklin County and the present terminus of this Division,
are mentioned; then, passing through Pittsylvania County, we come
to Danville, the livest town in all Virginia; where the bright yellow
tobacco is prepared in very many factories for the use of the world.
X PREFACE.
Mention is made of the Danville & New River Railroad, which is
completed only as far as Martinsville, the county seat of Henry
County, but is to be pushed forward without delay to New River
Station on the Norfolk & Western Railroad, and thence to the coal
fields of West Virginia.
In conclusion, the reader is taken by the only available I'outc
from the North beyond Danville to Salisbury, on the Western North
Carolina Railroad ; from which point, as a fitting conclusion to the
manifold objects of interest already passed, he is transported across
the dizzy heights of the Blue Ridge Mountain, and along the shining
waters of the Swannanoa to the great Southern sanitarium, Asheville,
and thence down the turbulent French Broad River to the WarmSprings and Paint Rock, and thence to Morristown on the East Ten-
nessee, Virginia & Georgia Railroad. A glimpse is given of the
resorts in Northeastern Georo^ia, and then the little volume closes.
EXCURSION GUIDE
VIRGINIA MIDLAND RAILWAY.
THE hope of every American child is to behold with his own eyes the wonders
of the capital of his country, which he has so often seen pictured, and the
dream of every aspiring American youth is to figure as a leader, however humble,
in that great building of white marble, whose mighty dome towers in his imagination
thrice as high as it does in reality.
WASHINGTON CITY,the political heart of the nation, to which all the streams of travel tend, and to
which all hearts turn, lies immediately upon the northern border of Virginia. Tothis city— already great and beautiful, but destined to be greater and more beautiful
than was Rome in its prime (if the Republic holds together, as all good men pray it
may)— come all the currents of the national life, a tide of vast magnitude, which
yearly increases in volume as the country grows in population and the attractions
of the capital multiply in number and variety. Of the fifty millions who now inhabit
the United States, and of the hundred millions who will owe allegiance to the starry-
flag ere the century is complete, how many annually visit the capital, how many are
fortunate enough to see it once in their life-time.'' The computation could not easily
be made, but the number in both cases must be very great. Nor would it be easy
to forecast the destiny of the imperial city, or to call up in a vision its magnificence
a hundred, two hundred years hence. What will it be, if in God's providence the
Republic should last a thousand years, and Washington remain the capital ? It is
safe to say that the sun never shone upon such a city, and that the inflamed fancy
alike of prophets and poets would be put to shame by its grandeur.
2 EXCURSION GUIDE OF THE
Enough to know that our seat of government, apart from its political attractions,
contains, even now, so much that is of interest in architecture and antiquities, such
art collections and such storehouses of knowledge in its museums and its Patent Office
as to compete almost on even terms with the great centres of commerce all combined.
The actual population of Washington is not above two hundred thousand ; but, like the
human heart which it typifies, all the blood of the country, sooner or later, runs
through it, and everybody is at one time or another a resident. The ebb and flow of
transient visitors and temporary inhabitants is so enormous that railways alone can
give prompt ingress and egress to the tide, and these railways, by the very facilities
they furnish, but provoke a still greater volume of travel. Do you want to find a
particular man on the street .'' Stand where you are and he will pass by after a while.
,
So, if you want to see anybody, you have only to go to Washington and wait a day
or two; he will be sure to turn up. It is worth your while to visit the city, if only
to be surprised by the sudden appearance of the very last person in the world that
you ever expected to see.
MIDLAND VIRGINIA.Until a very recent period the Washington branch of the Baltimore & Ohio Rail-
road constituted the great aorta ofthe arterial system of the United States, into which
the streams of travel from all parts of the country, North, South, East and West, poured,
and through which they were again distributed to the several points from which they
originally came ; and although the functions of a common conduit for so many hun-
dreds, if not thousands, of tributaries, is now shared by another railway, the great
volume of passenger travel is still confined to this short, but most important, stem of
the Baltimore & Ohio road. The natural prolongation southward of this aortal link,
answering somewhat to the right iliac artery of the human system, is found in the
Virginia Midland Railway, which traverses the oldest and one of the greatest of States
from north to south, beginning at Alexandria and ending at Danville. Of the many
competing routes for trade and travel from the two great sections of the country, the
Virginia Midland offers facilities and advantages which it may justly claim as peculiarly
its own, and in which no other road can hope now or hereafter to obtain more
than an imperfect share. In the first place, it connects immediately with the twin
systems of railways which pour their united streams into the national capital. In the
second place, it affords to these streams a channel of distribution throughout the
South and Southwest, which, alike for its directness and its geographical advantages,
cannot be surpassed, if, indeed, it can be equaled. Thirdly, for the tourist, the
invalid, the artist, the student of history, the man of business and the intending
settler, it offers a route on which the monotony of coast travel is simply impossible—a route full of natural beauty, ever changing but never wearying in its variety ; a route
through corn and wheat fields, through pastures and beside mountains, over famous
fields of battle, in sight of historic homesteads, through healthful upland villages,
seats of learning and manufacturing cities ; and, lastly, owing to its midland position,
it gives to the traveler, of whatever character, health-seeker or pleasure-hunter, a
choice, to the right hand or the left, as his fancy or his need may dictate, of the whole
wide range of resorts, seaside, inland and mountain, for which the Old Dominion has
long been, and will long continue to be, celebrated.
Over this Midland route we purpose taking the reader, halting at each locality
of note only long enough to mark its chief attractions, and leaving the traveler
free to stay as many days or weeks as he may find leisure or inclination so to
do, assured that he will be pleased with all and charmed by most of the places
to which we will introduce him.
VIRGINIA MIDLAND RAILWAY. 3
Washington and its fascinations definitely set aside for a future and more
extended visit, the Summer tourist, casting "one longing, lingering look" behind
at the proud dome of the Capitol, finds himself upon the Long Bridge, with the
yellow portico of Arlington House on his right, peeping from the wooded hilltops
beyond Georgetown. Here lived the Curtises and the Lees. Here lie 11,276
Federal dead, of whom 4,077 are unknown even by name. It is the largest Federal
cemetery in Virginia, with a single exception — that at Fredericksburg. So muchof the estate as is not occupied by graves is given over to freedmen, who are herded
here in a large village.
ALEXANDRIA.Seven miles south of Washington is Alexandria, once a port of much importance
and destined to be so again, when the natural growth of its powerful neighbor shall
absorb it, as Georgetown has already been absorbed. The habit is to decry
Alexandria as a city that has seen its best days ; but its shipping, its mercantile and
manufacturing interests are larger than its detractors would have one believe, and its
society is so conspicuous for refinement as to extort praise from its worst enemies.
The wonder is that it is not more sought after as a home by those who tire of the
fashion and frivolity of the national capital. Upon the breezy and lofty heights, a
mile or two out o<f town, and under the shadow of the Episcopal Theological
Seminary and its attendant High School, the heat-worn citizen of Washington would
find precisely the restoratives needed to build up nightly a frame exhausted by the
tropic temperature and burthens of the day. It is simply a delightul spot, which
ought to be, and in time will be, crowded with country villas and ornate cottages.
The population of Alexandria is put down at 15,000 ; and its grow^th, if not rapid,
is secure. Objects of interest, either in the present or past history of the country, are
met with almost everywhere. Steam breweries, machine shops and iron foundries, an
admirably equipped market house, sash factories and planing mills, a cotton factory,
steam flour mills, a new commercial exchange, a handsome granite custom house
and post-ofiice, numerous stores and commission houses, furniture manufactories,
extensive fish-packing establishments, banks, churches, hotels and stately private
dwellings tell of the present. Braddock's headquarters in 1755, previous to the fatal
march upon Du Quesne ; Washington's pew in Christ Church, as it was when he
occupied it ; the old Masons' Hall, to which Washington belonged ; the house in
which Ellsworth, the commander of the New York Zouaves, was killed by Jackson,
the hotel-keeper, for tearing down the Confederate flag at the beginning of the late
war ; the residence of Canning, the British minister, and many other places of
historical note are pointed out. Especially pleasing are the homes of the better class
of citizens ; many of them of antiaue architectural patterns , others in large grounds,
shaded by ancestral trees and ornamented with rare flowers— evidences of comfort,
wealth and elegance. Mount Vernon, eight or nine miles away, is a particular
attraction, the drive thither over an excellent road being greatly preferred by many to
the stereotype route by the steamer from Washington. At Alexandria are various
railroads leading to other points ; the Washington & Cincinnati (incomplete) to the
county of Loudon, one of the largest and most fertile in the State ;the Alexandria
& Fredericksburg extending to Fredericksburg and thence to Richmond ;while the
numerous steamboats plying on the river furnish a pleasant mode of communication
with Baltimore, Old Point, Fortress Monroe, Norfolk, etc. The depth of water at the
wharves in Alexandria is forty-five feet, and in the Potomac River, down to the
Chesapeake Bay, a depth of twenty-seven feet, easily admits the passage of ships of the
4 EXCURSION GUIDE OF THE
largest tonnage. A canal extending from Alexandria to Cumberland, Md., supplies
the city with the well-known coals of that section. A large Federal cemetery contain-
ing 3,526 graves is just outside the city, is prettily laid out, kept with scrupulous
care, and is a favorite walk at all periods of the year. During the war the Seminary
and High School buildings were used as hospitals, having at one time as many as
3,000 patients. Of the seventy-six national cemeteries, where are buried 308,331
Federal dead, and 21,661 Confederate prisoners of war, seventeen are in the State of
Virginia, in which are buried 68,823 Federal soldiers and sailors, 30,888 of whomare known, and 37,935 cannot be identified.
ON TO MANASSAS."Were it fully manured and inhabited by industrious people, heaven and earth
never agreed better to frame a place for man's habitation than Virginia. " So wrote
Captain John Smith in 1607. General Washington, in a letter to Sir John Sinclair,
called Virginia, "the garden of America;" Daniel Webster, Horace Greeley and
Commodore Maury all bear testimony to the excellence of its climate and the fertility
of its soil. It is, indeed, "a fruitful and delightsome land," albeit men and manure
are in a measure still wanting. Given the men, the manure will soon follow, and to
supply the deficiency of the former, the Virginia Midland is actively exerting itself to
facilitate immigration. Traversing the Piedmont Section, so highly praised by
Washington and Webster, the Midland Road naturally connects itself with the
Danville System, which courses along the foot-hills of North and South Carolina, far
into Georgia, and now presents an unbroken Piedmont Line from the Potomac River
to the industrial metropolis of the South, Atlanta.
CLIFTON, VA., MANASSAS DIVISION, VIRGINIA MIDLAND RAILWAY.
Following the southwesterly trend of the Blue Ridge mountains, the Virginia
Midland road, after it leaves Alexandria, shows an almost continuous ascent until it
reaches the memorable battle-field of Manassas. The farming lands of Fairfax
county, well adapted to cereals and fruits, will attract the eye of the traveler, and the
VIRGINIA MIDLAND RAILWAY.5
county seat, a few miles lu tiie right of Fairfax station, is honored as the repository of
Washington's will. Pohick Church, which Washington helped to build and in which
he worshipped, and Gunston Hall, the residence of George Mason, author of the Bill
of Rights, which antedated the Declaration of Independence and embodied many of
its best features, are m Fairfax county.
Clifton, a small village, twenty-two miles from Alexandria and twelve miles from
Bull Run battle-held, was named by a Northern settler after Clifton Springs, N. Y. , a
very popular 'resort in that section of the country. A saw mill and spoke factory
testify to the industry of the inhabitants of Clifton, and a comfortable hotel and board-
ing-houses attract yearly many Summer boarders from Northern cities. Clifton was a
depot of supplies during the war, of which the surrounding earthworks give sometrace. As an evidence of the excellent soil for vineyard purposes, grapes raised in this
vicinity commanded at a home market fifteen cents a pound. The fine dairy farm of
Judge Fullerton, of N. Y. , is worthy of special notice.
MANASSAS VILLAGE.
Bull Run divides Fairflxx and Prince William counties. On this stream was
fought the indecisive action of July i8th, 1861, which preceded the first battle of
Manassas in the same vicinity on Sunday, July 21st, 1861. The result is familiar to
all. Subsequently, in August, 1862, was fought the second battle of Manassas, which
lasted three or four days, and with the results of which the reader is also familiar. Thebattle-fields, five or six mdes from the Village of Manassas, are easily reached by con-
veyances or on horseback.
The village itself, a purely farming one, without manufactures, bears witness to
the heart that is in the surrounding country. It has grown up snice the war, is wholly
the outbirth of peace and agriculture, has 700 inhabitants, five churches, a hotel of
wide repute, ten or more mercantile stores, a flourishing newspaper, and dwelling-
houses finished in a style and kept with a neatness that one does not often see outside
the North. The flagging of red sand-stone, drawn from neighboring quarries, will be
sure to impress the stranger. This stone, excellent in quality and very abundant, is
found near the railroad, on the lands of Mrs. F. L. Smith, of Alexandria, and others,
and offers inducements for investors, being equal to the Connecticut sand-stone for
building purposes.
Manassas being upon a table-land, a fine view of the surrounding country maybe had from the streets of the village ; but from the earthworks, pared down by the
hand of time, which mark the outlines of the entrenched camp built by the Confeder-
ates, a very wide landscape is seen. The houses occupied by Beauregard and Johnston
as headquarters are still standing. The scene, from its mere extent, is most impressive.
To the west and north are the dark ranges of the Bull Run Mountains ; on the east
and south stretches a vast plain, gently undulating to the remote horizon. Except
when the trains are in motion, a solemn hush, a brooding spirit of repose, rests onthe scene. The very stillness seems to have within it the repining sound of a low
wind in a lone cemetery. One does not find it hard to realize that the storm of war
once reveled here and passed on, leaving, it is to be hoped, eternal peace. A double
consecration, in which majestic nature and history no less majestic, each have borne
an equal part, appears to hallow the place, and the tourist, returning in the twilight
from the ruined bastions to his hotel, deeply impressed with all he has seen, carries
with him a holy sadness which he will long remember.
6 EXCURSION GUIDE OF THE
THE MANASSAS DIVISION.
(mosby's confederacy.)
At Manassas Junction, a branch railroad, sixty-two miles in length, extends west-
wardly through the counties of Prince William, Fauquier and Warren to Strasburg in
Shenandoah County. It is the most interesting division of the Midland road, at once
pastoral and picturesque— so much so, that the scenery at Thoroughfare Gap, River-
ton, and other points along the line have been deemed worthy c5f illustration.
Thoroughfare Gap is eleven miles from Manassas, and its gloomy passes, overhung by
wooded cliffs, present a strong contrast to the smiling landscapes which are seen on
either side of it. If the approach is pleasing, the country west of the Gap is more
pleasing still. Fauquier county is famous for its rich farms and fine cattle ; it is,
indeed, the home par excellence of Virginia graziers east of the Blue Ridge. The
BROAD RUN STATION, MANASSAS DIVISION, VIRGINIA MIDLAND RAILWAY.
traveler who has time to stop may here study two different styles of farming— the
intensive and the extensive— to better advantage, perhaps, than anywhere else in the
State. Nor will he be at a loss for a stopping place. There is a succession of clean
and prosperous villages on both sides of the Bull Run Mountains— Gainesville, Hay-
market, Thoroughfare, Broad Run, Plains, Salem (now called Marshall), Rectortown,
Delaplaine, Markham, Linden, Happy Creek, etc.— which will tempt him to lie over
for a day or two, merely to enjoy existence in this favored locality. Nay more, the
farm-houses along the whole line, but especially between the Bull Run and Blue
Ridge Mountains, are in summer time so many boarding-houses, filled with the pick
of people from the seaboard cities of Virginia, Washington and Baltimore. You
cannot go amiss, in town or country, for delightful shade, plenteous grass, flowers in
profusion, the best water in the world, charming society, fresh butter, milk, eggs,
fruit, vegetables ; fine horses, abundant vehicles, rides and drives without end, are to
be had almost anywhere and in every direction. A little way from the Plains station
is one of the sweetest of Virginia villages, Middleburg, in the southern part of the
VIRGINIA MIDLAND RAILWAY. 7
magnificent county of Loudon, the home in old days of many distinguished families,
whose historic houses are well worth visiting at this day. Among them is Oak Hill,
the noble residence of President Monroe, now owned by a wealthy gentleman of New
York, whose dairy farm is the pride of the whole section.
Scarcely less picturesque than the scenery at Thoroughfare Gap is tliat which,
be"-inning at Linden, the last station in Fauquier County, extends for miles in the
direction of Front Royal. Here the passage of the Blue Ridge is effected by bold
curves and grades that sweep around and along the flanks and shoulders of the moun-
HORSE SHOE BEND, MANASSAS DIVISION, VIRGINIA MIDLAND RAILWAY.
tains, shaggy with rocks and pines, or draped with vines and running plants and watered
with clear streams that leap from the hills and hurriedly make their way down to the
plains below. There are points which are wild, desolate and lonely, as in the midst
of the Hartz Mountains ; but, owing to the interference of loftier summits near the
line of road, none from which any very commanding view may be obtained. Thecountry east of the Blue Ridge, besides producing almost everything grown in this part
of the State, abounds in minerals—marble, jasper and porphyry being most prominent.
FRONT ROYAL.To what the county seat of Warren County owes its peculiar name, no one seems
to know. It is a thriving town of 1,200 souls, delightfully placed in as level and
lovely a valley as the eye often rests upon, and in the midst of bold but not lofty
mountains, which teem with agricultural wealth to their very summits. Two news-
papers, hotels, stores, churches, etc., attest the prosperity and rapid growth of the
place since the war. The dark, rich soil around the town, the wheat fields laden with
grain and the meadows deep with grass, sufficiently account for the growth of Front
Royal, apart from the mechanical industries which lie mostly outside of the town
proper. But upon the dark red hillside yonder is, perhaps, the most famous vineyard
and cellar in the State. Who has not heard of Marcus Buck's wine and brandy ?
Their fame has extended over the United States. In developing this important
8 EXCURSION C.l'IDE OF THE
l)ranch of industry, and in carrying it on to perfection, ]Mr. Buck incurred liabilities
that compelled him to part with his valuable establishment, which now in other hands
alnindantly requites them for their outlav.
7'hree miles or less from Front Royal is Allen's Cave, which in former years had
an enviable reputation, vying, as many thought, in beauty and magnificence with
Weyer's Cave. It is about 1,200 feet long, and contains incrustations and concretions
in one of its grottoes, called "Sarah's Saloon," which present a gorgeous appearance.
Its reputation, and that of Weyer's Cave as well, have been in a measure eclipsed by
the Luray Caverns, of which more hereafter.
There is a good hotel at Front Royal, and the fishing in the neighboring waters
attracts yearly many anglers from the North. In the midst of a tranquility which
recalls the village life in England, there are evidences of the activity of a growing
town, with a bright future before it. The neat dwellings, the busy stores and the
increasing number of houses occupied by artisans and mechanics give unmistakable
sign of health and prosperity.
In 1862 a severe engagement took place near this town between Generals N. P,
Banks and Stonewall Jackson. But the place is noted as the rallying point, if not the
heart, of " Mosby's Confederacv. " Not a few were the encounters between the
the guerilla chief and his foes, within and without the town.
THE SWITZERLAND OF VIRGINIA.
On the right of the Virginia Midland road, going South, is a tier of counties
which extends along the base of the Blue Ridge Mountains, from the vicinity of Front
Royal to within a few miles of Charlottesville, in the county of Albemarle. At no
point are they much less than fifteen miles from available railway stations. They are
the counties of Rappahannock, Madison and Greene. Being thus isolated, they are
comparatively unknown, but in respect of soil, climate, scenery, mineral and agricul-
tural wealth, they com{)are favorably with the most celebrated portions of the Com-
monwealth. Indeed, they constitute a terra incognita well worth exploring by the
artist, the invalid, the sportsman, the lover of herds and flocks, the seeker after mines,
ores, water power and manufacturing sites. So lofty, broken, wild and beautiful are
the summits of the Blue Ridge, as seen from the cosy villages and quiet highways of
Rappahannock, that the county has justly won the name of the Switzerland of
Virginia. In Madison and Greene the scenery, if not so wild, is still lovely ; and in
the former county there is a valley so sweet, so secluded and so fertile as fully to
justify comparison with the vale of happiness in which Rasselas dwelt. To those whonot only do not mind horseback exercise or traveling b\' private conveyance or stage,
but reall}' enjoy it, and to those also who are never so much charmed as, when away
from the beaten track of travel, they encounter good fare and clean beds, we heartily
commend these interior and little-known counties of Virginia. Madison and Greene
are best reached from Gordonsville, the former junction of the Midland with the
Chesapeake & Ohio road ; Rappahannock is accessible by stage from the town of
Culpepper ;but the route from Front Roval by private conveyance is over a shorter and
better road, and through a more interesting country ; the grazing farms of many large
herdsmen, and the scenery combining their attractions, to fascinate and detain the
traveler. Board at hotels, some of which are surprisingly good, and at private houses
both in the country and in the quaint, pretty villages, may be had on reasonable
terms, and the traveler will oftentimes find delightful society among the Summerboarders from the cities of Maryland and \'irginia.
VIRGINIA MIDLAND RAILWAY.
DEEP CUT, DISMAL HOLLOW, MANASSAS DIVISION, VA. MID. R'Y.
At Sperryville, in Rappahannock County, there is an extensive tannery, with
capacity to tan 30,000 sides of leather per annum. All along the sides of the Blue
Ridge are immense forests of chestnut oak, enough to supply any given amount of
the very best bark for tanneries of any capacity, at a cost of not more than four or five
dollars per cord, at the place of business. This section is well adapted to the
growth of grapes, apples and other fruits, of which a considerable amount is nowproduced and sold. Stock raising is a branch of business that has in all times been
profitably pursued. Numbers of the best horses, cattle and sheep come from this
county.. The soil is generally of an excellent quality, and can be purchased at
moderate prices.
Madison county has no railway facilities in its borders, but has good ccuntry roads
to the following stations on the main line of the Virginia Midland Railroad, viz. :
Culpepper, Mitchell's, Rapidan, Orange, and Gordonsville, the road to the latter
place being macadamized, and extending across the Blue Ridge into the valley. Theproductions of the county are still transported to market in the old-fashioned, but
commodious, four and six horse road wagons. These horses, for their size, strength
and endurance, are well fitted for the services they perform in these mountain regions.
The bottom lands of the Robinson and Rapidan rivers are unusually fertile. Ex-
traordinary corn crops have been raised for forty consecutive years, without any apparent
diminution in quantity. The other productions are tobacco, wheat, oats, rye, and
fruit. Iron and copper ores have been discovered in various parts of the county, and
only await further facilities of capital, labor and transportation to get to market. It is
watered by the Robinson and Rapidan rivers and their tributaries, and has a con-
siderable number of grist and flour mills, which latter manufacture for home consump-
tion and market a quantity of the best family flour.
The principal town in the county is Madison Court-House, which is situated on a
commanding ridge in the heart of the county. Ex-Gov. James L. Kemper is a resi-
dent of this place.
lO EXCURSION GUIDE OF THE
VIRCINTA MIDLAND RAILWAY BRIDCE AT RIVERTON.
RIVERTON AND THE LURAY CAVERNS.
Riverton Station is at the junction of the north and south forks of the Shenandoah
River, and at the junction of the Front Royal branch of the Manassas Division, two
miles from Front Royal. A large amount of freight is received here that comes
down the Shenandoah in flat boats from the counties of Rockingham, Page and
Warren. The products of the two last mentioned are to a considerable extent
tributary to this outlet. Extensive veins of brown hematite and magnetic iron ores
have been opened in these counties, and only await the construction of a short con-
nection with this railway to get a good and cheap outlet, either in the shape of
smelted metal or native ore. A joint stock company of Northern capitalists, with a
subscribed capital stock of $ i , ooo, ooo, are now operating with these ores.
Here the Manassas Division crosses the Shenandoah Valley Railroad, with its mag-
nificent scenic and metallurgic attractions. Going northward the traveler in a few minutes
finds himself in the midst of the almost unrivaled pasture lands of Clarke County,
and surrounded by the historic homes of the gentry of the old days, some of their
country seats being on a scale that is truly lordly. Washington's office and lodgings
at Soldiers" Rest, where Gen. Daniel Morgan, of Revolutionary fame, once lived;
Greenway Court, the seat of the eccentric Lord Fairfax : the old chapel, built in 1796 ;
the homes of Philip Pendleton Cooke, the poet-author of "Florence Vane," and of
his scarcely less distinguished brother, John Fsten Cooke, the novelist, are in Clarke
county. Nor are historic associations with the late war wanting, many combats and
skirmishes having taken place at or near INIillwood and Berryville, the county seat.
The lands, originally surveved bv Washington, are as fine as heart could wish;indeed
Clarke is the gem countv of Virginia.
Southward, through a district peculiarly rich in picturesque and diversified
scenery, the traveler is borne to Luray, the county seat of Page County, and within a
short mile of the famous caverns to which the attention of the whole world has been
VIRGINIA MIDLAND RAILWAY II
called within the past few years. So much has been written about these caverns, and
so many pictures of their wonders have been presented to the public, that it would be
a work of supererogation to add anything here. Suffice it to say, that they will amply
repay the visitor for the little time and trouble required to reach them. The distance
from Riverton on the Manassas Division to the caverns is just twenty-eight miles. Adelightful excursion may be made from Baltimore and Washington to the battle-field
of Manassas, thence through the wild gorge at Thoroughfare Gap, and the sunny up-
IN THOROUGHFARE GAP, MANASSAS DIVISION, VIRGINIA MIDLAND RAILWAY.
lands of Fauquier to Front Royal and Riverton, thence to Furay, and, on the return
trip, to take in Clarke County, Charlestown (where John Brown was hanged), the
romantic heights at Harper's Ferry, and so back to Washington and Baltimore again,
a lay-over ticket enabling the tourist to stop just when and where he pleases.
The confluence of the shining waters of the two branches of the Shenandoah at
Riverton furnish an excellent site for the thrifty industrial village that has grown up
there, and the scenery presents many points worthy of illustration. During the war
both the bridges over the north and south forks of the Shenandoah were burnt, and
near Riverton some heavy skirmishing between the Federal and Confederate forces
occurred, the former commanded by General Martindale and the latter by General
Wickham ; in addition to these were the battles of Chester Gap, Cedar Creek and
Front Royal.
At Buckton Station, five miles from Front Royal, a battle was fought May 22,
1862, between Banks' infantry and the cavalry commanded by the Confederate General
Ashby ; and five miles north of this place there was a severe engagement between
McCausland and a part of General Phil Sheridan's army. The Warren White Sulphur
Springs are one mile from Buckton.
STRASBURG.Strasburg, the present western terminus of the Manassas Division of the Virginia
Midland Railroad, derives its name from a place in the Fatherland, the original settlers
12 EXCURSION GUIDE OF THE
of this region being from Germany. It is distant from Alexandria eighty-eight miles,
from Harrisonburg fifty, and from Winchester eighteen, having direct railway commu-
nication to all of these points, besides to Baltimore City and other places North and
West ; and when this company extend their lines to the West Virginia coal-fields and
the Ohio river, will be not only a railway centre of no mean importance, but will
increase with a growth commensurate with this proposed railway extension.
At this station there are three churches, two hotels, other improvements, and a
population of about 800. Massanuttan Mountain, one of the rarest beautv in this
region, is within one mile. The famous Capon Springs, only second in the State to
the Greenbrier White Sulphur in point of equipments and the number of its Summerattendants, is within eighteen miles ; Orkney Springs within thirty-seven miles, and the
Seven Fountains within twenty miles of this point.
On the 2 2d of September, 1864, was fought, one mile south of the town, ihe
battle of Fisher's Hill, between the forces under General Early and Federal General
Sheridan. On the 13th of October of the same year there was heavy skirmishing
between Early's Corps and the Federal forces under General Thomas; and on the 19th
of the same month, three miles north of the town, there was a severe battle. Banks'
Fort is barely fifty feet from the Strasburg Station. The products of the surrounding
county are wheat, oats, corn, rye, hay, and a great variety of fruits.
Shenandoah County, in which Strasburg is situated, is thirty-two miles long, with
a mean width of fifteen. The central portion is mountainous, and, like the rest of
the Valley counties, the soil is extremely fertile. Despite the ravages of war, through
the industry and energy of her people and the great fertility of her soil, prosperity and
plenty are again apparent in every home, to which the rebuilding of the IManassas
Division, which was entirely destroyed during the war, has to a large extent contributed.
At Strasburg the Manassas Division connects with the Harper's Ferry and Valley
branch of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, affording the traveler a direct route north to
Winchester and Harper's Ferry, and south to Staunton, and thence via the Chesapeake
& Ohio Railroad to the Virginia Springs, passing eii route some of the most superb
farms in Virginia— or indeed in the United States.
INDUCEMENTS TO IMMIGRANTS.Before we return to the description of the country along the main stem of the
Virginia Midland Railway, it may be well to pause a moment for the purpose of stating
very briefly what the Midland Company has done in regard to the great need of Vir-
ginia— to-wit, immigration. Of the lands, in so far as farming is concerned, and of
the climate, we have already spoken, and shall continue to speak, as we advance from
point to point. The mineral interests of the road, if properly treated, would occupy
a chapter many pages in length ; we have space here barely to allude to them. Recent
discoveries along almost the entire line of the road comprise specular, hematite and
magnetic iron ore deposits, asbestos, kaolin, marble, porphyry, gold, jasper, fine clay,
plumbago, slate, argentiferous galena, manganese, fire-proof stone, mineral substances
for paints, copper, blue, red and gray building stone, etc. The development of
these minerals, now lying almost dormant, with the productions of forest, field and
garden, will be a constant object of care on the part of the company in the future as it
has been in the past, and no pains will be spared in developing the entire resources of
the country.
Recognizing the fact that railroads in the future must to a great extent depend
upon the local freight and travel, this company will use every exertion to facilitate
VIRGINIA .MIDLAxXI) RAILWAY. I3
immigration to, and settLemeat in, tliis region of Virginia. To more efficiently carry
out this plan, some years since, the company acquiretl frc^m the Legislature of the
State the authority to purchase lands along their lines, with the view of re-selling them
on a long credit to actual settlers. This is the first effort of the kind ever made by any
railroad corporation in the State, and should commend itself as the most efficient
mode yet presented of accomplishing the settlement of surplus lands of that portion
of the State through which this company 's lines pa.ss.
When the Midland Railroad passed into the hands of a Receiver the lands
acquired under this authority by the company reverted to their original owners; but the
immigrant may rest assured that all that can be done in his behalf will be done cheer-
fully and promptly, whether he wishes to purchase or to examine lands once owned by
the company or by other parties ; and to prove this, all that is needed is an application
by mail or in person at the office of the company in Washington City or in Alexan-
dria. An examination of the map will show that for its entire length the Virginia
Midland road runs through the splendid Piedmont district of a State blessed with
salubrious air, superabundant water-power and a capacity second to no other for the
production of cereals, grasses, fruits, and indeed whatever the soil of Mother Earth in
her temperate zone brings forth.
RETURN TO THE MAIN STEM— BRISTOE,CATLETT'S, Etc.
Four miles from Manassas Junction, on the main stem of the Viginian Midland
Road, is Bristoe Station, and two miles east of that is Brentsville, the seat of govern-
ment for Prince William County, a small village with little or no attraction beyond the
extensive views which its elevated position commands. Prior to the war and up to the
present time the country near Brentsville has been occupied by Northern settlers, whohave gathered there in such numbers as to form a community of their own.
During the war several battles were fought near Bristoe. One on the 27th August,
1862, when General Hooker commanded the United States forces, and General Ewell
the Confederate. Another on the 14th October, 1863, General Warren commanding
the United States, and General A. P. Hill the Confederate States troops. Large quan-
tities of sumac are received at this station for shipment to Alexandria and other places.
Nokesville, named for a Northern settler, is the station next to Bristoe, and then
comes Catlett's, where General J. E. B. Stuart made a night attack upon United States
General Pope. The lands hereabouts are gently rolling and susceptible of high im-
provement ; in fact, some of them have doubled in value since the war.
WARRENTON.Warrenton, the countv seat of Fauquier, is at the terminus of the W^arrenton
branch of the Virginia Midland Railway. It has a population of about two thousand,
is distant fifty miles from Alexandria, and is situated on a commanding eminence in
the very heart of the county. It is a beautiful and well laid-oft' village, and its inhabi-
tants include some of the most distinguished citizens of the State and soldiers of the
late war. The society in and about this beautiful and growing village has alwa}s been
good, and there are good schools, churches and hotel accommodations. Large num-
bers of summer visitors, principally from Washington City, spend their leisure time
here, and so great are the social and climatic attractions that wealthy persons from
both North and South have built permanent or temporary homes in or near the town.
Warrenton is proverbially the gayest place in summer in all Virginia. Chief-Justice
Marshall, whose portrait adorns the Court-house, and whose descendants still live in
14 EXCURSION GUIDE OF THE
the county, was born nine miles below Warrenton ; a ruined chimney to the left of Mid-
land Station marks the site of the old homestead, Warrenton contains about twenty
mercantile and other stores, Episcopal, Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian and Catholic
churches, and three educational institutions.
The branch road from Warrenton Junction to the town is 9 miles long, the junc-
tion itself is 48 miles from Washington.
Fauquier, the county in which Warrenton is situated, was formed in 1759, and
named for Lord Francis Fauquier, the then Governor of Virginia. In this county
begins the grazing region, which extends, with but few local exceptions, through
Culpepper, Rappahannock, Orange, Madison, Albemarle, Nelson and Amherst
counties.
Fine sheep, cattle and horses are raised in tliis entire region, but nowhere of
higher pedigree and qualities than Fauquier. A colt show is held at Upperville, a
beautiful village in the northern part of the county, at which is annually exhibited a
large number of fine animals, many of them of the best breeds, from direct import-
ations from England and other places. The old Virginia fondness for fine horses
and fox-hunting is still, to a considerable extent, indulged in. Many gentlemen keep
hounds, and the emigrant from old England occasionally brings over an imported
breed to have them vanquished in the chase by the more hardy native. There is a
disposition, however, everywhere apparent to advance small industries of every kind,
and the attention to cattle has so grown within the last ten years that 30,000 head are
annually handled in this county alone. There are gold diggings in the southern part
of the county, and some fine varieties of iron have been discovered.
THE FAUQUIER WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS.The gaiety of Warrenton at midsummer stands in little need of outside aid, but
is doubled or more nearly quadrupled when the Fauquier White Sulphur Springs,
just six miles off, are crowded with the elite of Washington and Baltimore. Life in
Warrenton is then a veritable carnival. An excellent road extends from the town to
the Springs, the scenery is charming, handsome villas and country homes adorn the
gentle slopes on either side, blue mountains immantled in dark-green forest-robes hem
in the peaceful landccape, and the road, crowded with equestrians, mounted upon
blooded horses and with stylish equipages, presents a scene of the brightest and most
animated character. There is a constant interchange of visitors at all hours of the day,
but in the dewy mornings, the tranquil sunset hours and the moonlit nights the air is
vocal with the whir of swift wheels, the clatter of fast trotters and the laughter of belles
and beaux. Happy are they whose summers are spent in Fauquier.
In place of the old structures which existed previous to the war, there is now at
the Fauquier White Sulphur Springs a brick hotel, five stories high, handsome in
design, imposing in appearance, built in the most substantial manner, admirably fin-
ished and equipped with all modern improvements. It stands upon an eminence
which commands a beautiful view. The grounds are plentifully shaded with lofty
aspens and sycamores ; hard by runs the upper Rappahannock, a clear stream, fringed
with trees that love the water, and flanked by a broad level meadow which seems
adapted by nature for the joust on horseback, of which the young Virginians are so
fond, and for other pastimes, such as lawn tennis, croquet, etc. In addition to the
hotel proper, there are a number of highly ornamented cottages in the Queen Anne
and other styles, which are the Summer homes of opulent men from the cities.
The rooms in the hotel are all airy and cheerful, with spacious hallways running
directly through each story. The large ball-room is in the main building. The sur-
VIRGINIA MIDLAND RAILWAY.1
5
rounding country is wild and picturesque, the air pure and healthy, free from malaria
and the annoyance of mosquitoes, and there is, of course, a first-class band of music
in attendance during the season.
It is the determination of the proprietors, Messrs. Tenney & Co. , of Willard
House fame, to maintain the standard of excellence which obtained the past season,
and they refer to the thousands who patronized the Springs last Summer.
Terms will be moderate and regulated by the extent of accommodations required.
The hotel will be opened the ist of June and close the loth of October.
The Fauquier White Sulphur Springs may be reached in three hours' time from
Washington via the Virginia Midland Railway, which so times its special trains as to
enable men of business in Washington and Baltimore to spend the night with their
families at this delightful resort and to return in time for business the next morning.
Concerning the water, it is sufficient to say that it is equal to any water of its kind
in Virginia or elsewhere, containing not only sulphates in various forms, but also mag-
nesia, chlorides, soda, potassia, iron and gaseous matter. Testimonials as to its virtues
in many diseases may be had of the proprietors at any time on application. Dr.
Thomas Antisell, of Washington, D.C.,says: "The source of the mineral ingredients
of the spring lies in the country, which is an aluminous slate, the beds of which lie
nearly horizontal or with slight slope, and holding between their layers sandy ferrugi-
nous seams, in which are imbedded crystals of iron pyrites, with some hydrated oxyde of
manganese. The iron in the water is derived from the crystals of pyrites, the sulphur
separating from which has in part become acidified and united with the earthy bases,
and perhaps with the protoxyde of iron, to form a soluble iron salt."
CULPEPPER.Passing through Fauquier, the Virginia Midland Road enters the fine county of
Culpepper, which was formed in 1748 and named for Lord Culpepper, who was Gov-
ernor of Virginia from 1680 to 1683. Between Warrenton Junction and the town of
Culpepper are Midland, Bealeton, Rappahannock and Brandy stations, at each of which
engagements of greater or less importance took place during the war. Being debatable
ground, Culpepper was fought over, trampled upon and denuded of its timber by the
contending armies as no other county was. Its comparatively level surface affords an
excellent field for cavalry manoeuvres, and the heaviest battle between bodies of this
arm of the service, that occurred during the war, took place at Brandy Station, June9th, 1863, Pleasanton commanding the Federals and
J. E. B. Stuart the Confederates.
The mineral wealth of Culpepper County has only been partially explored. Somerich specimens of magnetic iron ore have been found between the towns of Culpepper
and Mitchell's Station ; ore is seen on the railroad track between these two points on
the farm of Major E. B. Hill, other surface indications have been found on Slaughter's
Mountain and vicinity, and ores of the hematite series are found near the MadisonCounty line.
Numerous undeveloped mineral spings exist, and Culpepper abounds in building
stone which, under experiments at the Smithsonian Institution, withstood a pressure
of more than 48,000 lbs. to the square inch without fracture.
Culpepper, the county seat, first called Fairfax, after the lord of that name, is a
town of enterprise and of business prosperity, with 2,000 inhabitants. A large Federal
cemetery, containing 1,349 graves, in 901 of which lie unknown bodies, is situated just
outside the town. Culpepper was, during the autumn of 1863, the headquarters of
General Meade, commanding the army of the Potomac. General Grant also had his
headquarters here during the winter and early spring of 1864.
1
6
EXCURSION GUIDE OF THE
The town is immediately on the line of the Virginia Midland Railway. Its prox-
imity to rail and its unsurpassed air and water make it a desirable Summer resort, and
its hotels and boarding-houses are lilled every year. It has a large number of dry-goods
stores and commission houses, one of the handsomest and most costly court-houses
in the State, many churches, representing every Protestant denomination, schools for
both sexes, a bank, and mills for the manufacture and grinding of grain, sumac, guano,
bark and plaster. A great amount of produce is shipped from this point. Here the
traveler may find a public conveyance which runs daily to Sperryville and Washington
in Rappahannock County. The neatly kept Federal cemetery, the many new and hand-
some private dwellings and the beautiful scenery which aroused the enthusiasm of N.
P. Willis, combine to make Culpepper a place of unusual attraction. A little below
the town, a cutting through rock, so obstinate alike to the pick and the blast that it
])roke every contractor who undertook it, and had finally to be completed by the company,
will attract the geologist and others who are curious about such matters. In revolu-
tionary times Culpepper County was famed for its " Minute Men," who, as Randolph
of Roanoke said, "were raised in a minute, armed in a minute, marched in a minute,
fought in a minute and vanquished in a minute ;" but of late years has been dis-
tinguished by its Agricultural Society, whose exhibitions have at times rivaled those of
the State Agricultural Society at Richmond.
MITCHELL'S AND RAPIDAN.Mitchell's Station is 69 miles from Alexandria, and 7 from the county seat, Cul-
pepper. The battle of Slaughter's, better known as Cedar Mountain, was fought near
this place on the 9th of August, 1862. Two miles from this, and immediately on the
line of the railroad, there is an excellent vein of magnetic iron ore, and near the same
locality a mineral containing seventy-one per cent of silica, which has stood extraordi-
nary tests of heat. This amount of silica so near the surface, with a good soil over it,
makes it the best natural soil known to grape culture, the fruit on the vines being as
perfect as when a mountain elevation is had. Commencing here and running in the
direction of the Rapidan valley, are to be found exceedingly fine grass lands. Large
crops of hay, the usual cereal productions, and large amounts of sumac are annually
shipped from this station.
Rapidan Station, five miles south of Mitchell's, deserves special attention be-
cause of its exquisite scenery and its prolific, well-tilled soil. Nowhere on the line is
there a spot which so forcibly recalls the best portions of the North. The place has a
reputation almost national for beauty and fertility. From the station little idea can be
formed of the varied and charming landscapes that are commanded by the eminences
on which the homes of the well-to-do farmers are situated. On one side are the rolling
dark-red hills of (3range, on the other the plains of Culpepper, yellow with wheat ; in
the 'middle distance are two small mountains of symmetrical form ; to the east is the
bold and rugged summit of Clarke's Mountain, which was Lee's signal station during
the war ; far to the west and south runs the azure wall of the Blue Ridge, and in the
midst is the silver river, gently winding down the valley. Wealthy merchants of Bal-
timore and Richmond have their country homes here, and a generous rivalry in farm-
ing, with ample means and a soil that was originally rich, has made Rapidan as near an
earthly Paradise as one is apt to find in the world.
The Rapidan River was for many months the dividing line between the Northern
and Southern armies, as earthworks still show. A dam across the stream makes a
beautiful waterfall, which may be seen from the station, and develops abundant power
for the flouring mills adjacent. Corn, wheat, oats, etc., are grown in vast quantities,
VIRGINIA MIDLAND RAILWAY. IJ
and of late years great attention has been paid to hay, which has proved a most
remunerative crop. Fat beeves, sheep and hogs of improved breeds abound, but
comparatively little attention is bestowed upon dairy products. The village itself is
quite small, but the country around is thickly settled with people, all of whom appear
to be in easy, and many in prosperous, circumstances.
WATER POWER ALONG THE VIRGINIA MIDLANDRAILWAY.
Although the mill at Rapidan is one of the few visible from the car window as
the traveler goes southward on the Virginia Midland Railway, it must not be inferred
that there is in any of the counties along the line a deficiency of water courses or of
the power which they afford. Quite the contrary. No State of its size in the globe
can boast so many great rivers as Virginia, and the Midland Road, running the whole
length of the Piedmont region, necessarily cuts these rivers and many of their affluents
at points more or less near their sources in the mountains, and just where their power
is most available. On this head we cannot do better than to quote from the excellent
"Descriptive Account of the Virginia Midland Railroad," wdiich was published a few
years ago by Dr. J. C. Hill, of Alexandria, and to which we have been, as we shall
hereafter be, indebted. Dr. Hill says :
"From the Potomac, at Alexandria, to the River Dan, on the North Carolina
border, fine water powers abound. All the great water courses of the State head in or
beyond the Piedmont district, are necessarily crossed by the tracks of the Virginia
Midland Railroad, and many of them at, or near these crossings, afford splendid
water-power facilities." Those at Alexandria on the Potomac, at Lynchburg on the
James, and at Danville on the Dan, are treated of in the enumeration of the respective
resources of these places.
Four miles below the railroad crossing, on the Rappahannock River, at a place
called Wheatley's Mills, is one of the cheapest as well as most superior water-powers
to be found in any country. The whole stream in the river can be turned out by a
dam three feet high into a place called Marsh Run, giving to the power a fall of forty-
four feet, with a capacity to build up innumerable industries, the values of which
would be almost incalculable, enough to supply, if properly economized, the wants of
an entire State.
In Culpepper and Orange counties, on the Rapidan and tributaries, there are
numerous powers, with a maximum fall of fifteen feet. In Nelson on the Rockfish,
in Amherst on the Buffalo, and other streams in Campbell on the James and others,
and in Pittsylvania on the Staunton and Dan rivers, there are powers of magnitude
enough to run the machinery of the State of Massachusetts. This does not include
streams of minor capacity, with power sufficient to operate the ordinary grist, saw and
flour mills. These water courses, besides answering the purposes of manufacturing,
could, in many places, be utilized for irrigation.
ORANGE.Orange, the county which the Virginia Midland Railway next enters, derives its
name from the color of its soil, and originally embraced all of Virginia west of the
Blue Ridge. Beautifully diversified, it seems made expressly for the suburban homes
of gentlemen of means who live in cities. In almost every vale there is a stream;
from every hilltop a beautiful view. The air is pure. The natives love their county
with inexpressible devotion. It is a favored land. Much of it has been injured by
exhausting crops and slovenly farming, but its recuperative power is very great.
1
8
EXCURSION GUIDE OF THE
Colonel John Willis contends that Orange is better for grazing purposes than the
Valley or the counties of Southwest Virginia. "Whether or not, " says he, "these
views are just as to cattle grazing, it will scarcely be questioned that our red hills are
the favored home of sheep. Well-drained hills to graze and sleep on, pure and
abundant water, winters not too cold nor summers too hot, grasses abundant, but not
too luxuriant or succulent ; our sheep are always healthy, and foot ail, rot, and all
other diseases often so fatal to sheep, are rarely found in our flocks. With commonWestern ewes a farmer may triple and often quadruple his outlay in fifteen or eighteen
months. This, too, with a very small consumption of grain or other provender."
Better corn land cannot be found, and, of course, there is iron— the color of the
soil leaves no doubt on that point. Near Madison River station, four miles from the
county seat, veins of red, yellow and brown hematite run for a long distance in close
proximity to the track of the Virginia Midland Raihvay, and quite recently a Penn-
sylvania company has leased, and is actively working the mines on the lands of Major
Erasmus Taylor. Veins 25 feet thick are found. Near this same station valuable
marble and limestone deposits have been profitably worked.
Orange Court House—The Wilderness.
The best way to reach the battlefields of the Wilderness and of Spottsylvania Court
House is to take the Virginia Midland Railway at Washington for the county seat of
Orange, 86 miles distant. There a narrow-gauge road, 40 miles long, will conduct
the traveler to the fields so desperately fought over by Grant and Lee, and also to
Fredericksburg, a quaint old town, well worth visiting for its own sake as well as for
that of the battles which occurred in and around it. Not far from the narrow-gauge
line are the gold fields from which Commodore Stockton reaped such a harvest, and
which, it is confidently expected, will yield still richer harvests in time to come when
thoroughly developed.
Orange Village contained in 1880 a population of 763. Its importance has been
much enhanced since the completion of the narrow-gauge road to Fredericksburg and
the continuation of the Virginia Midland Railway directly to Charlottesville, instead
of the indirect route by way of Gordonsville, where for many years the Midland Road
made connections with Charlottesville via the Chesapeake and Ohio Road. For the
benefit, partly of local and partly also of through passenger traffic northward, trains
still run daily over the nine-mile link between Orange and Gordonsville. Situated
upon commanding and beautiful hills, Orange and the country immediately around it
contain, it is said, more elegant residences than any of the towns along the line of this
road. It has a court-house, an Episcopal, a Baptist, a Methodist and Presbyterian
churches ; two weekly newspapers, one or two good hotels, and several good boarding-
houses, with ample accommodations for resident, transient and Summer visitors;good
public and private schools ; and quite a number of mercantile stores and other similar
improvements. During the war a conflict took place in this town between the Federal
and Confederate forces, commanded respectively by General Broadhead and Colonel
William E. Jones ; and another, a very severe (jne, at Rochelle, about six miles from
Orange Court House ; Generals Kilpatrick and Buford commanding the Federals, and
General J.E. B. Stuart the Confederates.
MONTPELIER.President Zachary Taylor was born in Orange County, the house of his nativity
being, as some assert, still in existence. James Waddel, the blind preacher, whose
eloquence is so glowingly described in Wirt's "British Spy," lived and preached in
VIRGINIA MIDLAND RAILWAY. 19
Orange. The house in which he lived still stands near Gordonsville. Patrick Henry
and Governor Barbour both conlirm Wirt's account of his marvelous oratorical
powers. About four miles from Orange Court House, on an eminence and amidst
grand old trees is Montpelier, or more correctly INIontpellier, the country seat of James
MONTPELIER, NEAP. ORANGE COURT HOUSE, VA.
Madison, President of the United States from 1809 to 18 17. It is a noble edifice, a
gentleman's home. Originally it was furnished with plain but rich furniture, and or-
namented with busts, pictures, etc., most of which have been scattered amongst his
connections who live in this and other counties. An extensive lawn surrounds the
house, level as a floor in front, and commanding a magnificent view of the mountains,
but in the rear falling into a lovely green dell, shaded by tall trees. On the east is a
large garden, containing a great variety of native and exotic plants and fruit trees. Mr.
Madison died at Montpelier, June 28th, 1836, at the great age of 87. His tomb, and
that of his wife, together with others of his family, are inclosed in a little cemetery a
few hundred yards in front of the house. After many vicissitudes, Montpelier House
and the large and valuable farm attached to it have passed into the hands of Northern
purchasers, whose purpose, it is said, is to place it in that thorough repair which it has
so long needed.
GORDONSVILLE.Gordonsville, the former junction of the Virginia Midland with the Chesapeake
and Ohio Railroad, has a population of fifteen hundred, with forty stores ami places of
business, four manufacturing establishments, several hotels and boarding-houses, one
newspaper—Gordonsville Gazette—^we churches, six schools, three livery stables, etc.
The buildings, almost all of wood, have been put up hastily, yet the most of them are
in good taste and well suited to the purpose for which they are intended. Gordons-
ville must continue to be a place of considerable trade, as most of Greene and Madi-
son, and portions of Albemarle, Orange and Louisa are tributary to it.
The country around Gordonsville is so attractive, and the society so good, that
many Englishmen and Northerners have chosen it in preference to any other part of the
20 EXCURSION GUIDE OF THE
State. The late Dr. Cadmus, of New York, on a farm near the village, entered largely
into the culture of grapes and the manufacture of wine, an industry which is still more
largely followed in the adjoining county of Albemarle. Improved breeds of horses,
cattle, sheep, pigs, etc., have occupied the attention of the English settlers and of
native Virginians as well, and the peculiarly English feature of monthly or bi-monthly
fairs for the sale of horses, etc., imparts to Gordonsville a life and animation not often
seen in Virginia. Board is so reasonable, living so abundant, the climate so healthful,
and access to the cities so easv that many families make Gordonsville their Summer
home.
SOMERSET AND BARBOURSVILLE.Returning to the main line of the Virginia Midland Railway at Orange, we pass
en route to Charlottesville, on the newly constructed link, the stations of Somerset,
Barboursville and Bethel, places of minor importance as yet, but destined to the
growth that almost invariably attends railway stations located in good farming dis-
tricts. The fertile soil and charming scenery on the western base of the southwest
mountain range long ago drew to this region, secluded as it then was, one of Virginia's
most distinguished sons. Governor James Barbour, whose home, now occupied by his
no less distinguished son, B.Johnson Barbour, Ese]. , may be seen immediately on the
left of the road as we approach Barboursville Station. Now that the rail has reached
this hitherto isolated section, the quiet little village of Barboursville and the adjoining
county of Greene, which lies right under the shadow of some of the boldest peaks of
the Blue Ridge, together with its equally attractive neighbor, Madison County, will
become points of special interest to those who seek the tonic and the balm of our
Virsrinia Hitrhlands.
bird's-eye view of CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA., FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA.
CHARLOTTESVILLE.The approach to Charlottesville on the Virginia Midland Railway, along a range
of low wooded hills and through a narrow valley, gives no conception of the magnifi-
cent county of Albemarle into which we have now entered. To see it to advantage, to
VIRGINIA MIDLAND RAILWAY 21
study its man_v points of interest, one must give tliis goodly county a day or two, or
still better, a week or two, on horseback or in an open vehicle. Nor in the space
allotted us is it possible to do more than enumerate the manifold objects which in
town and country imperatively claim the attention of the historian, the scholar, the
scientist, the artist, the farmer, the manufacturer. l"he University of Virginia ; Mon-ffcello, the home of Jefferson, on its lofty and beautiful plateau ; his mutilated tomb
on the mountain side below ; the Brooke's Museum of Natural History, with its
fat simile of the INIammoth, the only one in the United States ; the Observatory
for the great telescope, given by Cyrus McCormick ; the Ragged Mountains,
made famous by one of Edgar A. Poe "s weirdest stories ; the woolen mills ; the
cellars of the Monticello Wine Company, whose native wines received the prize
at the Paris Exhibition ; the stock farm of S. W. Ficklen, Esq. ; the farm of Mr.
Brennan, formerly of New York, well-nigh perfect in its every aspect ; the cultured
and polished society of the University of Charlottesville—turn where you will there is
something to edify ana to charm. Wisc was the forethought of the philosophic states-
man in selecting Albemarle as the site of that institution of learning of which, next to
the Declaration of Independence, he was most proud—poetic the faculty which
prompted him to build the house of his fame amid scenery that is lovely even to fasci-
nation. And how pathetic the lately printed declaration of his gifted granddaughter,
that "of the ten thousand acres once owned by Jefferson, all that now remains is lOo
square feet of burial ground and a tomb hacked to pieces by vandals."
Charlottesville is on the right bank of the Rivanna River, and immediately on
the line of the Virginia Midland Railway, at the intersection with the Chesapeake and
Ohio Railroad. It was incorporated in 1762, and named in honor of Queen Char-
lotte. It is iiS miles from Alexandria, 115 miles from Washington City, 97 miles
MUSEUM AT THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA.
from Richmond and 20 miles from the base of the Blue Ridge. The University of
Virginia, founded in 1825, is beyond question one of the most famous schools in the
Union. Its standard is higher and its examinations more rigid than those of any other
22 EXCURSION GUIDE OF THE
school whatever in the United States. Before the war its average attendance was 600
students ; now, owing to the impoverishment of the Southern people, the numbers
rarely exceed 400. Near the University grounds are buried 1,500 Confederate soldiers.
The town contains nine churches, embracing almost every creed ; two weekly news-
papers— the Jeffersonian Repuhlican and the Chronicle—three job printing ofifices, four
public and six private schools, three hotels and a number of private boarding-houses,
two national and two savings banks, two livery stables, a large number of mercantile
stores, and, in addition to these, a smoking tobacco and cigar factory, plough, broom,
wheat, fan, carriage and wagon establishments, and one foundry. Outside of the town
the Charlottesville Woolen Mills, heretofore spoken of, are doing a large and lucra-
tive business. The cigar factory manufactures near a million of cigars annually. Twowine companies have been organized. The wine made here of the native grape is
large in quantity and excellent in quality. The surrounding country produces every-
thing grown in this latitude, and the lands command the highest market prices.
The Miller School.
In the well-named Ragged Mountains there was born, early in this or late in
the last century, a boy named Samuel Miller. Illegitimate, obscure, poor as poverty
itself, absolutely without education, this boy's destiny was to eclipse in real life the
dreams in which Poe's imagination rioted when he chose as the scene of his story the
wild hills among which this poor boy was born. Samuel Miller, at the time of his
death, some twenty years ago, was the richest man in Virginia. He had no legitimate
heir. He made a few small, private bequests, left a large sum to the University of
Virginia, founded an orphan asylum in Lynchburg, and then the bulk of his fortune
(which originally amounted to millions, but had been sadly shorn by losses of many
kinds) went to the endowment of a manual labor school for poor boys ; first of Albe-
marle County and next of the State at large. In memory of his humble origin, and
at his special request, this school was built in the very heart of the scenes of his child-
hood, and there it now stands—a marvel of architectural solidity and beauty, startling
the beholder, in spite of his mental preparation, by its strong contrast with the un-
tamed solitude around it. It is admirably managed, has one hundred occupants, who
are at no expense whatever, from the time they enter until they leave, and is undoubt-
edly doing a great deal of good in a direction where there is the greatest need.
Grape Culture and Wine Manufacture.Grapes flourish everywhere along the line of the Virginia Midland Railway, the
slopes of the Bull Run range, the Southwest mountains and the foot hills of the Blue.
Ridge, being their natural habitat. On many farms in many counties grapes are ex-
tensively grown for sale in the Northern markets ; but nowhere has grape culture
and wine-making attained such proportions as in Albemarle County, which promises
to become the centre of this industry on the Atlantic side of the continent. In view
of this fact, we again quote from Dr. Hill's valuable little book. He says, page 14 :
" The Superintendent of Garden and Grounds, in his annual report for 1869 to Con-
gress, speaking of the most healthy grape of the Northern States, says : 'Of course,
its quality is generally improved by the length and genialty of the season of growth;
for example : Those who are familiar with the fruit only as the production of Massa-
chusetts would not recognize its flavor and vinous character when ripened in Virginia.
The mountain slopes and plateaus in Virginia and other Southern States must be
looked upon as the great producing regions on this continent for a certain class of fine
wines, not excepting California and other favored sections of the Pacific coast. We
VIRGINIA MIDLAND RAILWAY 23
must depend upon this section for the coming wine grape. '"' Dr. Hill continues :
"There is hardly a doubt about the truth of these statements, which apply equally
well to a district of comparatively flat land running through Culpepper County, Vir-
ginia, the substrata rock of which contains, by analysis made for the writer at the
Smithsonian Institute in Wasb-agtun City, 71 per cent, of silica. The absorbing
power of this metamorphic rock is extraordinary, and secures beyond question what
is absolutely necessary for the grape-drainage. Indeed, the most experienced and sci-
entific vineyardist could not have ordered the making of a better vineland, except as to
elevation. Vigorous native grape vines, however, can be seen in many places running-
on the ground, with fruit as fine and sound as if it had the greatest possible elevation.
Possessing this advantage, the Virginia grape has others of value to the vineyardist.
It can be easily cultivated and manured ; the fruit readily gathered and carted out, and
being immediately on the line of the Virginia Midland Railway, shipped to market
at trifling cost. This land should command the highest price known among vine-
growers, and yet, on account of the lack of knowledge of these important facts, is
comparatively cheap. In addition, it is a fine natural grass land, and, in support of
the theory advanced, and contrary to the well-established one of 'the green belt' or
'vernal zone.' has the earliest Spring and the latest Fall grapes, which would materi-
ally tend to establish the fact that the absorption qualities of the substrata rock re-
ferred to act as chief agent in producing these results. The metamorphic rock has,
besides the 71 per cent, of silica, 10 of lime and several of alumina and potash, and
when pulverized by natural or artificial modes, restores to the soil the elements which
are so necessary to the full development and growth of the plant." In regard to the
yield and prices of grapes grown on lands through which the Virginia Midland Rail-
way runs, Dr. Hill makes the following statements: "Messrs. Miller & Wood, of
Rappahannock County: Concords, 5,000 pounds; Catawbas, 2,500 pounds; Dela-
ware, 1,000 pounds; Clinton, 2,000 pounds per acre; average price five cents per
pound. Best, market grape, the Catawba. Mr. Wm. Hotop, of Charlottesville, fourteen
acres, in Delaware, Norton, Iris and Concord. The Delaware brought in New York
15 cents. Iris 11 cents, and Concord 8 cents per pound, ^h: H. M. Armistead, of
Campbell County, from a vineyard of three acres and three thousand vines made 800
gallons of wine per acre, which sells from |2. 50 to $5 per gallon. The vines are Iris,
Concord, Ionia, Alvey, Delaware, Rogers' No. 14 and 15, Hartford, Clinton andCatawba, six to eight years in bearing. These grapes are comparatively free from rot
and mildew, and are all superior for wine or table use."
24 EXCURSION GUIDE OF THE
THE CHESAPEAKE AND OHIO RAILROAD-THE VIR-GINIA SPRINGS AND SUMMER RESORTS.
It has been stated that at Charlottesville the Virginia Midland Railway unites with
the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad just at the point where the latter begins in earnest
the ascent from the uplands of the Piedmont District to the high grades that lead to
the summit of the Blue Ridge INIountains at Rocktish Gap. It is almost needless to
add that this great road— the Chesapeake and Ohio— traverses the boldest and most
picturesque scenery in Virginia, and in its course virtually monopolizes the most cele-
brated watering places within its borders. The bare enumeration of these springs
would fill a page or more of this book ; an account of their curative properties would
occupy our whole space, and a description of their scenic and social attractions would
swell the pamphlet into an octavo volume. And if, in addition to all this, a detailed
recital of the towns, the villages, the farms, the mineral lands, the forests of timber,
the ore banks, the furnaces (constantly increasing in numbers and magnitude), and
the coal measures, with the accessories of their constant and progressive development,
were given, the octavo volume would assume the proportions of a library. A mere
outline of the more important features of the Chesapeake and Ohio road is all that is
here possible.
From the delicious and varied scenery at Rockfish Gap, the road quickly descends
to Waynesboro, in Augusta County, where it intersects the Shenandoah Valley Road,
which, within the year, has been prolonged to Roanoke, on the Norfolk and Western
Railroad. Staunton, with its many asylums and female schools, its bustle and its
thrift, is now reached, and at Buffalo Gap the North Mountain is crossed—Elliott's
Knob, the highest peak of the Blue Ridge, dominating the scene. Many Summer re-
sorts of local note have been passed and we have entered the iron region, as the fur-
nace on the right shows. At Goshen we cross the headwaters of the James River, and
are almost within sight of the romantic Goshen Pass, through which a stage road leads
to the academic town of Lexington, where Lee and Stonewall Jackson lie buried,
near the institutions of learning with which their names are inseparably associated.
En route are the Cold Sulphur Springs and the Rockbridge Baths. At Millboro, a
neat and growing village, with a hotel of enviable repute, passengers leave the railway
for the famous thermal waters of Bath County, the Hot and the Warm Springs, and
also for the Jordan and Rockbridge Alum Springs. Descending the Alleghany range
on which Millboro is situated, and passing the station near Longdale furnace, the
Chesapeake and Ohio road at Williamson's unites with the Richmond and Alleghany
Road very close to the justly celebrated scenery at Clifton Forge. A few miles further
on is the great Lowmoor furnace, beyond which is Covington, the point of departure
for the Healing Springs. Here begins the bold and costly gradients by which the
great centre of attraction, the White Sulphur Springs, is reached in its mountain fast-
ness. Midway (or a little beyond) the ascent of this portion of the Appalachian chain
is Alleghany Station, from which stages run to the Old Sweet and the Sweet Chalybeate
or Red Sweet Springs. As to the recent improvements of the White Sulphur, it is
enough to say that the immense enlargement of the main hotel, begun last Summer, has
been completed, and continued by the introduction of all the modern facilities and
conveniences, additional drainage and sewerage, more new cottages, a large lake, a
race-course, etc., the determination of the proprietors being to keep "The White"
fully abreast with the times and with the demands which will be made upon it, in com-
mon with the other Virginia Springs, in consequence of the westward and eastward
extensions of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad.
VIRGINIA MIDLAND RAILWAY.
sinBiiiiiiinii liliiisiilillHltllUS
^ ^^,^
KANAWHA FALLS, C. AND O. RAILWAY.
Beyond the White Sulphur are the Salt Sulphur, the Red Sulphur and other
Springs, the wooded chasms that have been cloven by the limpid waters of the Green-
brier River, the mingling streams at Hinton, the forges and conical hills at Quinne-
mont, the dizzy inclines at Sewell and a dozen other places, the towering precipices at
Hawk's Nest, the gray and awful canon of New River, the junction of the New River
with the Gaoley, the great Falls of the Kanawha, the mining towns at Cannelton,
Blacksburg, Coalburg and elsewhere ; Charleston, the capital of West Virginia, with
its busy industries, its little stern-wheel steamers—the first infallible note of the West
—and so on to the young city of Huntingdon, on the banks of the Ohio, and thence
again to Lexington in the heart of the renowned blue grass region of Kentucky, from
which point the Chesapeake and Ohio, a true trans-continental railroad, aspires to and
will soon attain, by links rapidly nearing completion, the Pacific Ocean. Already on
26 EXCURSION GUIDE OF THE
the east, the line that stretches from Richmond over the historic peninsula between the
York and the James rivers, pierces the ancient and long-isolated seats of the earliest
civilization in America, terminating at the grand haven of Newport News, in sight of
Hampton, Old Point Comfort, Fortress Monroe, Norfolk and the Capes of Virginia,
that look across the Atlantic to Gibraltar and the coasts of Africa.
By special arrangements between the two companies, the Virginia Midland and
the Chesapeake and Ohio railways are enabled to transport passengers from the North
and East on a faster schedule, in a more commodious manner and with fewer changes
than by any other route whatsoever to the White Sulphur Springs, and from that place,
as a radiating centre, the two roads have it in their power to offer visitors such inter-
changes from mountain heights to sea-shore breezes, and such variety of excursions as
defy competition on the part of other roads. In the morning the invalid may inhale
the ozone and feast on the mountain mutton, the trout and the venison of the Alle-
ghanies, and at night regale himself on the hogfish, sheepshead, the crabs, terrapins
and oysters of the Hygeia Hotel at Old Point Comfort, while his ears are ravished by the
plash of the waves and his lungs refreshed' by the salt air of the Chesapeake Bay. If a
longer excursion be desired, what could be better than a trip of a week or ten days' dura-
tion, extending from "The White," via Charlottesville, to the great tobacco centres at
Lynchburg and Danville, thence to Salisbury in the gold section of North Carolina,
and thence again through the glorious mountain regions of Western North Carolina,
along the bright Swannanoa to Asheville, thronged with countless Summer visitors, and
down the impetuous French Broad River to the Warm Springs and Paint Rock, thence
on to Morristown, Tenn., from which place the traveler, completing his detour,
would return via the East Tennessee and Georgia Railroad and the Norfolk and Western
Railroad, through the beautiful scenery of Southwestern Virginia to Lynchburg, and
so back by Charlottesville to the White Sulphur again. But this is only one of the
many charming excursions which the rapid integration of the great passenger routes
and the interchange of railroad courtesies and facilities will offer to the invalid and
tourist who seeks health and recreation in the Virginia mountains.
NELSON AND AMHERST COUNTIES.(fruit culture.
)
Coming back to the main stem of the Virginia INIidland Railway at Charlottes-
ville, we encounter on the route to Lynchburg a rough, mountainous section, not at
all inviting to the eye of the agriculturist. But on each side, beyond the rude hills
near the track, are pleasant valleys and good farming lands. On the left, not manymiles away, lies the rich valley of the James River, where very recently the tardy
course of traffic by canal has given place to the rapid transit of the Richmond and
Alleghany Railroad. Indications of ore increase— nor are they mere indications, for
on the northern bank of the James, in the belt of countr\- between the river and the
Virginia Midland Road, the aggregate mineral wealth—augmenting as we approach
Lynchburg— is incalculable. We have also entered, par e.xcellcjice, the fruit region.
All parts of Nelson County are well adapted to the growth of fruit, but especially of
apples and grapes. The finest and largest apples exhibited at the annual meeting of
the Pomological Society of the United States, held at Boston, Mass., in the fall of
1873, came from Nelson County. The two most excellent varieties were the Albe-
marle Pippin and the Pilot. The former has heretofore been considered superior to
all others, but the latter, which has its habitat in Nelson, surpas.sed, it is said, even the
famous pippin in some of its qualities. Dr. Hill has gathered the following facts in
regard to apples, etc., in this and other counties along the Virginia Midland Railway:
VIRGINIA MIDLAND RAILWAY. 27
GRIFFITH'S KXOB, C. ANP O. RAIIAVAV.
"The Agricultural Bureau Report of 1871 shows that Mr. C. Gillingham of
Accotink, Fairfax County, has a nursery of one hundred acres of peaches, one hun-
dred of apples and ten of pears. From five hundred peach trees three hundred
bushels of peaches were sold, at an average price of $1 per bushel. The pears
brought $4 per bushel. I\Ir. Gillingham recommends as the best apples for early
marketing, 'Edward's Early," Hagloe, Astrachan, and Early Ripe ;of Fall apples, the
Grovenstein. the Fall Pippin, and the Maiden's Blush ; and of Winter apples, the
Albemarle Pippin, Abram. Bowling's Sweet, Ridge Pippin, etc.
"Messrs. Miller & "Wood, Washington, Rappahannock County, have one hundred
acres in apples, thirtv-two feet apart, with peach trees intervening. The apple trees
yielded last year one hundred and fifty bushels per acre, worth $1.25 per bushel. The
crop was shortened one-third by the drought. Their best market variety is the Pippin.
28 EXCURSION (lUIDE OF THE
" I\Ir. James Newman, Gordonsville, Orange County, has two hundred bearing
apple trees, averaging twelve bushels each, or three hundred bushels per acre, worth
twenty-eight to thirty cents per bushel at the oixhard. The loss of trees is about two
per cent, per annum, from unknown causes. The loss of fruit is rare. The Albe-
marle Pippin is the best market variety. This is a very low estimate of what can be
done in the way of fruit-raising in this locality. Mr. Goss, of Orange County, has a
great reputation as an apple grower."
"Mr. R. E. Davis, Nelly's Ford, Nelson County, has three thousand bearing
apple trees on eighty-nine acres. The yield per annum ranges from one to fifteen
bu.shels per tree; losses, about twenty per cent. He prefers, as the market varieties,
the Pippin, Esopus, Spitzenberg, Baldwin, etc."
In this, and the adjoining county of Amherst, the annual proceeds of certain
orchards pay the entire original cost of the lands.
"Mr. John C. Murrell, Campbell Court House, raises three hundred bushels of
apples per acre, worth fifty cents per bushel. His best market varieties are Wine-sap,
Russet and Lady apple.''
Nelson County, formed from Amherst in 1807, and named for Thomas Nelson,
who was Governor of Virginia in 1771, is about twenty-six miles long and twenty
broad. It is watered by the Rockfish, Tye and Piney rivers, the first emptying into
the James at Howardsville, the others uniting and emptying in at New Market. These
and other mountain streams give to the country a superabundance of fine water-power
for manufacturing purposes.
Amherst County was formed from Albemarle County in 1761, and is about twenty-
two miles long and nineteen wide. It is watered by the Pedlar, Buffalo and numerous
smaller streams. The passage of the James through the Blue Ridge is a magnificent
spectacle. The Richmond and Alleghany Railroad, from Lynchburg to the county of
Rockbridge, winds along the mountains through scenes most wild and romantic.
Lofty mountains rise on every side, and shadow the ravines and rapids below. Nothing
more sublime in all the length of this mountain chain from the Potomac to the James.
The soil of this county is naturally fertile, of a dark, rich, red hue, and the scenery
beautifully diversified. The productions are tobacco, wheat, corn, oats, rye and fruits.
The apples grown here, as in the county of Nelson, are of a very superior quality.
Recently large veins of magnetic and brown hematite iron ores have been discovered,
and are being developed by local and foreign capital. Discoveries have been made of
a great many other valuable mineral substances. Years ago gold was found, *and a
rich variety of copper was worked. Barytes, manganese, plumbago, emery, limestone,
marble, slate, soapstone and kaolin have also been found. Different kinds of mineral
springs have been discovered, but none of them improved or frequented.
Since the war, and more particularly since the reaction from the panic of 1873,
the county seat of Amherst, in common with other towns along the Virginia Midland
Railway, has exhibited an activity unknown in the old days. Population about 600;
a newspaper, many stores, churches, etc. ; scenery very beautiful ; climate all that heart
can ask ; living abundant—in a word, a first-rate Summering place for flimilies and
children.
LYNCHBURG.Precipitous as Quebec :
" live," almost, as Chicago ; famous throughout the world
for its smoking and chewing tobaccos .; noted all over the United States for the
indomitable push of its inhabitants ; an important railroad centre ;romantically
situated, with water as pure as air, and air like the ether itself Lynchburg, the portal
of the busy and prolific Southwest, proudly surveys the magnificent scenery far stretched
VIRGINIA MIDLAND RAILWAY 29
RAIIAVAY BRinCiE ACROSS JAMES RIVER CANAL AT LYNCHBURG, VA.
on every side around her. Time was when Lvnchburt;- truthfully claimed to be, with a
solitary exception, the wealthiest c\iy per capita on the American Continent, and wealth
is there still. Tobacco holds sway, as it has done for near a century, but the day is not
distant when iron in its various forms will eclipse the Indian weed, and Lynchburg will
become the Pittsburgh of Virginia, and perhaps of the South;
A bewildering scene meets the eye of the traveler as he alights at the Midland
Station in Lynchburg. Such a medley of railways and water courses is rarely ever seen
outside, and still less inside, of a city. The Virginia Midland,- the Norfolk and Western
and the Richmond and Alleghany railways all come together just at the confluence of
Blackwater Creek, with the James River and Kanawha Canal (or what is left of it)
and the James River itself. Factories, mills, foundries, railway shops, lumber and
coal yards, saw and planing mills, are all piled together in a narrow area under the
southern bluffs which cut off all view of the city proper. Truly a stirring scene.
Named for the author of the summary Lynch law (or for a relative of his) the
town had in 1880 a population of about 16,000 : it is now nearer 20,000.
There are in Lynchburg eight banks and banking houses— two national, three
State and three private. The capital in the incorporated banks aggregates $800,000,
with a discount line in conjunction with the private banks of about one million and a
half; four newspapers— three daily and one weekly; four first-class hotels, and a num-
ber of excellent private boarding houses, ten or twelve churches, nine public and sev-
eral private schools, water and gas works, a large number of mercantile stores and
commission houses, and, on the suburbs, beautiful and commodious fair grounds.
These are the property of the Agricultural and Mechanical Society, which has adorned
them with well-arranged and appropriate buildings. This society offers annually a
large and expensive list of premiums to exhibitors. The most attractive exhibits are
the native minerals, and each year the quality and variety entered have increased.
The great staple of trade and manufacture, however, in this city is tobacco, and
it is estimated that there are some seventy or eighty establishments engaged in its
30 EXCURSION GUIDL OF THE
RAILWAY BRinOE ACROSS THE JAMES RIVER AT LYNCHBURf?, VA.
manufacture or manipulation in some form. The Lynchburg brands of smoking and
chewing tobacco are those best known in the markets of the world. Ample water
power is afforded by the James River for rolling mills, foundries, flour mills, bark and
extract manufactories, etc. Few places are so admirably fitted for industrial en-
terprises and for every kind of manuflictures. Labor is cheap, living is cheap, water
power is cheap and abundant, coal, iron and lumber are within easy reach, railways on
the river bank radiate to all points of the compass— all the factors that capital and
skill demand are here : and the future of Lynchburg as an industrial centre is beyond
peradventurc.
LrMiiER, Sumac, Oak B.\rk. Small Fruit.s, Etc.
Campbell C'ountv, in which Lynchburg is situated, and the adjoining county—Pittsvlvania— until penetrated a few years ago by the Danville extension of the Vir-
ginia Midland Railway, constituted a terra incognila, so cut off were they from rail-
ways. Large tracts of original timber were practically inaccessible and untouched.
These have to some extent fallen under the lumberman's axe, Imt much remains and
many saw mills are kept busv at different points along the line, or a little distance
from it. What is true of these two counties is also true of others that are near the
J\Iidland road. The amount of timber, its variety and value, and especially the pines
(jf great size that are found in the country south of Lynchburg, deserve more than
the passing notice here given.
Sumac abounds in Virginia. The demand for it being unlimited, large and an-
nually increasing amounts are forwarded from every station on the line of the Virginia
Midland Railway. It can be gathered at a comparatively small cost, and readily sold
for cash to the numerous competing mills in and out of the State. Heretofore, the
proprietors of the land permitted the freedmen to collect this article wherever they
found it growing. Now, it is getting to be regarded by the owners of the soil (as it
deserves to be) more in the light of property, as in some places it yields to the gath-
VIRCilNIA MIDLAND RAILWAY. 3
1
erer what the owner would consider, under existing circumstances, a fair annual rent
for out lands;and some experts say that, if properly planted, cured and gathered at
the proper season, it could be made a paying crop. Certain it is the adaptability of
most soils for its production is almost everywhere evident. Two specimens, grown in
Virginia, were tested by Miller's method at the Agricultural Bureau at Washington,
with the view of substituting it for the foreign article in the manufacture of fine leather,
and were found to contain respectively "19^ and 17} percent, of tannin." Theextracted dye stuff is said to be superior to the Sicilian variety, 2,000,000 pounds of
which are annually imported into the United States. At Alexandria, Culpepper.
Orange Court House, Gordonsville, Charlottesville, Lynchburg and other places
large mills, many of them steam, are kept going day and night during the gathering
and delivering season to meet the demand. Besides, all along the Blue Ridge, in
close proximity to the Virginia Midland Railway, grow immense forests of chestnut
oak, the bark of which is considered the very best known for tanning purposes. Theoak-tanned leather is superior to the hemlock, which latter has been very much dim in-
PANTHER GAP, LOOKING EAST, C. AND O. RAILWA-i
32 EXCURSION GUIDE OF THE
ished in the forests of New York, Pennsylvania and other Norlhern and Eastern States,
and those engaged in this profitable business will sooner or later have to resort to
the better article of chestnut oak in Virginia, where tanneries can be located and run
more cheaply and profitably than in other sections of the United States ; and at no
distant day this immediate section will become the tanning centre of the Union.
Already there has been established at Sperryville, Rappahannock County, by C. C.
Smoot & Sons, of Alexandria, a very large branch tannery. They now tan 20,000
sides of sole leather, for which they find quick sale in the adjacent cities, and they
have made preparations to extend their vat capacity to 30,000 sides, to enable them
to supply in part the great demand for pure chestnut oak leather. This article having
taken the premium at the recent Vienna Exposition, there is an increasing demand
for it that the European market cannot supply, or even compete for, on account of the
greater abundance of oak bark supply in this region.
Small fruits grow in such wanton profusion that it is hard to speak about them
with moderation, and well nigh impossible to exaggerate their quantity, variety and
excellence. In Orange and its sister counties the section hands have no little trouble
in keeping the road bed clear of strawberry vines. The Commissioner of Agriculture
says: "The strawberry, raspberry and blackberry are indigenous plants in Virginia.
The latter, when cultivated, attains a large size and fine flavor. Large quantities are
gathered from the old fields and woods and sold in the Washington market. Other
wild fruits are held in high esteem, and are sold at good prices— whortleberries, chin-
quepins, chestnuts, walnuts, hickory nuts, etc., etc." Large fields of strawberries are
cultivated, and yet the supply falls short of the demand. Raspberries, currants and
gooseberries have an increasing demand ; indeed, of these small fruits it may correctly
be said that the public appetite " grows by what it feeds upon." In garden vegetables
lovers' leap, on the JAMES RIVER, orPOSn'E LYNCHBURrr, VA.
everything required for the most sumptuous table is grown to perfection. To enlighten
persons not acquainted with the productions of our soil and climate, Dr. Hill men-
tions the following vegetables, grown by the most simple means of cultivation :
VIRGINIA MIDLAND RAILWAY 33
"Peas, beans, potatoes (both Irish and sweet), watermelons, cantaloupes, pump-kins, squashes, cucumbers, cabbages, turnips, radishes, asparagus, spinach, celery,
tomatoes, peanuts, leeks and onions ;
" and he might have added lettuce, chickorv,
cauliflower, cress and an endless variety of other things, all of which can be profit-
ably raised on the various soils to be found in the Piedmont region, and shipped either
North or South to good markets. Speaking within bounds, tons of blackberries,
dewberries and cherries are allowed each year to rot in the ground or upon the
trees, because the people are too indolent or too thoughtless to gather them. Coloredmen and women have been known to refuse themselves to assist, or allow their children
to assist, the whites in gathering cherries, although offered pay in money or half the
gathered crop.
HAWK S NEST, FROM SOUTH BANK OF NEW RIVER, C. AND O. RAILWAY.
34 EXCURSION GUIDE OF THE
SUMMER RESORTS ON THE NORFOLK & WESTERNAND thp:
RICHMOND & ALLEGHANY RAILROADS.The breezy liills and the excellent hotels of Lynchburg tempt numbers of people
to make that bustling city a Summer resort for weeks and sometimes months together.
Each year the numbers increase. But, beginning at Lynchburg, the country along the
line of the Norfolk and Western Railroad, like that along the Manassas Division of the
Virginia ]\Ldland Railway, becomes in Summer time one vast boarding-house. At
the first visit of hot weather the people of Texas and the lower parts of the Gulf
States begin to crowd in :-a little later Vicksburg, Memphis and other cities north of
the Gulf pour in their tide, and still latter, come the dwellers of the seaboard cities of
Virginia and the Carolinas, until almost every farmhouse, and certainly every town,
village, hamlet and railway station has its quota of health and pleasure seekers. These,
be it remembered, are in addition to the contingent of the regular watering-places.
Not unfrequently the hotels and boarding-houses in the towns and villages are, if pos-
sible, more crowded than the Springs themselves. Nor is this to be wondered at.
Although the watering-places on the Norfolk and Western Railroad have not the national
celebrity that some of those on the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad have, they are never-
theless as numerous, varied and meritorious as the better-known system of medicinal
waters on the latter line.
The Bedford Alum Springs are but ten miles from Lynchburg, and on both sides
of the Norfolk and Western Railroad there is a succession of watering-places and Sum-
mer resorts stretching from Bedford to the terminus of the line at Bristol, 200 miles
away—the Blue Ridge, Coyner's, the Alleghany, the Montgomery, White Sulphui", the
Vellow Sulphur, the New River White, the Salt Pond, the Peaks of Otter, Natural
Bridge, the Seven Springs, the Washington Springs, the Salt Works at Saltville, the
Natural Tunnel, etc. To these add the attractive mountain towns—Liberty, Salem,
Wytheville, Christiansburg, Newbern, Marion, Abingdon, the Agricultural College at
Blacksburg, and Emory and Henry College near Glade Spring. Of the scenery it is
needless to speak—Puncheon River Falls, the White Top, Bald Knob, the New River
at Eggleston's and countless others must be seen to be fully appreciated.
The great extent and richness of the mineral deposits on the Norfolk and Western
Railroad, only guessed and scratched at for generations, have now become scientifi-
cally known, and have attracted investments already exceeding a million dollars, and
rapidly increasing. Every variety of metal—gold, iron, zinc, lead, copper, barytes
—
crops out of this pactolian soil, and the hands of skill and experience alone are needed
to reap the rich fruit. In one single county along the line (Wythe), there are fourteen
iron furnaces, with capacities ranging from 1,000 to 3,000 tons, whose yield aggregates
over a million of dollars yearly.
Game is abundant, as well as fish. There is superior mutton, beef, poultry, but-
ter and eggs, for the refreshment of the inner man. Board is cheap, the fare excellent
and abundant at the various private boarding-houses, and the body being so repaired
the mind will be the better enabled to take in the poetic glories of the mountains and
the shady forests that hide their eternal crowns.
The list of Summer resorts in the shape of springs, hotels, boarding-houses and
private families, who will entertain visitors during the coming Summer, will be
furnished on application to the Norfolk and Western authorities and agents.
But the point of greatest attraction at this time is the nascent town of Roanoke,
formerly called Big Lick. Here the Norfolk and Western Railroad unites with the
VIRGINIA MIDLAND RAILWAY. 35
Shenandoah Valley Road, and here the slow-going folk of old Virginia are about to
behold a spectacle hitherto confined to the West, viz., a town springing into full and
busy life as if by magic. Seventy-five acres have been leveled to receive the vast
depots, station, shops, etc., of the company; upon the hills close by houses for em-
ployes are going up literally by the hundred ; in addition to which the Pennsylvania
Steel Company is about to erect a furnace of great size, with the necessary buildings
and dwellings for its officers and workmen. The population suddenly brought to this
obscure hamlet will amount to 4,000 or 5,000 souls, with an e.xpected increase to 8,000
or 10,000—an expectation by no means fanciful, for Roanoke is in the very heart of
the best agricultural portion of Virginia and in the midst of scenery of consummate
beauty.
One point we should like long to dwell upon, but must content ourselves by
simply touching. It is this : Railroads fail of their moral purpose if they do not bring
together the people, especially of the hitherto-discordant sections, and thus weld the
national life into a firm and harmonious whole. Why, then, should not the men of
the North and East, who flock to the Greenbrier White Sulphur, avail themselves of the
opportunity afforded them by excursion tickets to spend a few days among the water-
ing places of Southwestern Virginia.^ In no other way can they so easily, and at such
trifling cost, acquaint themselves with the men of the South, their wives and children.
Putting it upon the lowest plane, the acquaintance thus made could hardly fail to result
in business relations which would prove profitable, and at all events the change of base
to fresh scenes of natural beauty and to a society wholly different from that which they
see at home, would be a novelty at once pleasing and instructive.
Although the Richmond and Alleghany Railroad has no watering-place of import-
ance immediately upon its line, so far as now completed, it can with justice claim to be
one of the most attractive roads, in a purely artistic point of view, in or out of Vir-
ginia. A valley so fertile and so beautiful as that of James River is seldom found, and
beginning with the softer landscapes near Richmond the road, ascending by the gen-
tlest grades to the mountains, becomes more and more picturesque each mile of the way
until the climax of the bold, the wild, we might almost say the terrible, is reached
amid the cloven heights at Balcony Falls, and thence onward to the sublime perspec-
tives at Clifton Forge. He who wishes thoroughly to enjoy a trip to the Natural
Bridge (which is to be made a rival of the Luray Caverns by its new owner, Mr.
Parsons), Lexington, etc., would do well to take the Richmond and Alleghany Railroad.
Nor is the scenery all. The road claims, and with good show of reason, to be one of
the first mineral roads in the United States. Those who desire to investigate iron ores,
in endless variety and boundless in quantity, will be abundantly gratified by a tour
over this new claimant for public favor, which undoubtedly has a great destiny and that
not distant.
The Franklin Division.
At Franklin Junction, about 40 miles from Lynchburg, begins the Franklin Divi-
sion. The country to this point is uninteresting and sadly worn by bad tillage.
Franklin Division extends a distance of 10 miles to Rocky Mount, the seat of govern-
ment of Franklin County. The road is narrow gauge, and along it are numerous de-
posits of iron ore, some of them of fine quality. At Pittsville, nine miles from the
junction, magnetic ores in great quantity have been mined and shipped to Pennsylvania.
From these ores, mingled in due proportion with others, Bessemer steel of excellent
quality is said to be made. Crossing Pig River, the road runs up Ridder's Creek to
the southern end of Smith's Mountain, and thence by Pen Hook, Union Hall, Glade
Hill and White Rock to Rocky Mount. At various points veins of iron and other
2,6 EXCURSION GUIDE OF THE
minerals intersect the road diagonally. Barytes, limestone, manganese, kaolin, anti-
mony, copper, asbestos, nickel, gold and silver are found in greater or less quantities.
Franklin County, formed in 1784, from Bedford and Henry counties, has the
honor of being the birthplace of General Jubal A. Early of Confederate fame. Thesoil has a clay foundation, and it is well adapted to farming. Very large crops of
tobacco, corn, oats and wheat are made. Rocky Mount, the county seat, 179 miles
southeast of Richmond, had in 1880 a population of 300, and is rapidly growing.
The scenery around the village is uncommonly fine. Bald Knob— a mighty
rock— rises in lonely grandeur almost within the corporate limits, and from its gray
summit green valleys, rounded hills, blue and misty peaks, billowy ranges of moun-
tains and a seeming plain that stretches away into the hazy distance, form a panorama
of almost unsurpassed magnificence. Easily reached on foot or on horseback, the
Knob is the centre of attraction, alike to the young and the old in the pearly morn-
ings and golden evenings when Summer brings its recurring throng of visitors.
Franklin County is, so to speak, a "brand new" county in the midst of an old State,
being but lately opened to rail ; now that it is in communication with "ail the world
and the rest of mankind," Rocky Mountain and Bald Knob may reckon upon a large
accession of tourists and admirers.
PITTSYLVANIA COUNTY.Pittsylvania County was formed in 1767 from the county of Halifax, and named
after the great I'n^lish statesman, William Pitt, afterwards Lord Chatham. It is
watered by the Staunton, Banister and Dan rivers, besides numerous creeks and
streams. It is remarkable fur the variety and value of its timber and for the superior
quality of its tobacco, the land in certain parts of the county being peculiarly adapted
to the "bright yellow"' tobacco, which has become so popular since the war. Over
and again men have cleared from a single crop of this tobacco enough money to
pay for their entire farms. An agent of the Russian government, who had been sent
out to study practically the Virginia method of growing tobacco, selected Pittsylvania
County as the best field for his experiment, bought a farm, and, after two or three
years of cultivation, was so pleased with the result of his farming that when he went
back to Russia to make his report, he expressed the wish and the purpose to return
to Virginia and make it his home for life. But his government could not spare him.
Chatham, the county seat, is on a branch of the Banister River, near the centre
of the county and immediately on the line of the Virginia Midland Railway. It had
in 1880 a population of five hundred, two large tobacco warehouses and several
manufactories of tobacco, stores, churches and schools. It is noted for its society and
for a hotel, which, more than any other now extant, recalls the Okl ^^irginia Tavern in
its prime.
DANVILLE.Danville, the terminus of the Virginia Midland Railway, is situated on the south
bank of the River Dan, 239 miles from Washington and 4 miles from the North Caro-
lina line. From the number of roads projected and in process of construction to all
points South, it bids fair to be one of the principal railway centres of the Southern
country. It is a rapidly growing and progressive town, with a population in 1880 of
7,536. No town in the State has a more energetic population, and no business men a
higher reputation. It has six or eight churches, several excellent colleges and institu-
tions of learning for both sexes, a capital hotel, eight warehouses for the sale of leaf
tobacco, whole streets of factories for the manufacture of chewing and smoking tobacco,
VIRC;iNIA MIDLAND RATT-WAY. 37
VIRGINIA MIDLAND RAILWAY STATION AT DANVILLE, VA.
foundries, flour and saw mills, fruit and tobacco box factories, several machine shops,
banks, newspapers and almost unlimited water power for manufacturing of every kind.
Strangers will be profoundly impressed with Danville. Those who are disposed to
twit Virginians for their want of enterprise will be amazed at the push and snap of
the people of this indomitable little city. Nowhere in the world do business men work
as they do in Danville, and nowhere in the South is there a town which so forcibly re-
calls Lowell, Lynn, Fall River and other manufacturing centres of the North and East.
Factory after factory, built in the most substantial manner ; swarms of black opera-
tives and streams of wagons, laden with the bright yellow tobacco of North Carolina
and Virginia, impart to the place a life and activity seen nowhere else in all the South,
except at Atlanta. The handsome private dwellings in modern styles, the ornamented
grounds, the stately trees, the shrubbery and abundant flowers also recall the North
most vividly. Li a word, Danville is the embodiment of energy and progress.
Danville and New River Railroad.From Danville an admirably built, narrow-gauge road runs to Martinsville, the
county seat of Henry— a county famous for its tobacco, its timber, its ores, its scenery.
etc. The Danville and New River Railroad, for that is its name, will be pushed to a
connection with the Norfolk and Western Railroad, at New River Station, and, when
completed, will become a most important outlet for the coals and mineral wealth of
West Virginia.
The elevated site of Martinsville, its romantic surroundings, and the fact that it is
on the highway to the Pinnacles of the Dan, coupled with the further fact that it has
ample accommodation at its hotels and boarding-houses for Summer lodgers, must
secure for it a larger patronage than it has heretofore enjoyed, now that access to it is
so easy. The population is about four hundred.
A few miles from Danville, the Danville and New River Railroad connects with
another narrow-gauge road, that runs toward Leakesville, Mocksville, etc., in North
38 EXCURSION GUIDE OF THE
Carolina, passing en route that charming and fertile district to which Colonel William
Byrd, in the " Westover Manuscripts, " gave the appropriate name of the Land of
Eden. Among the many attractions of these two roads, the excellent fishing in the
streams which they intersect deserves special mention.
At Danville, the Virginia l\iidland Railway unites with the main stem of the
Richmond and Danville system. This great highway from North to South, ibllowing
the trend of the Appalachian Chain through North Carolina, South Carolina and
Northern Georgia to Atlanta, keeps always in sight of the mountains, amidst pic-
turesque scenery, upon high and healthful grades, and thus secures— what no other
road in the United States can claim— undisputed right to the title of the Great Con-
tinental Piedmont Line of North America. The many points of interest along its
route, and especially those in North Georgia, and upon the Western North Carolina
Division, which confessedly has no rival in scenic attractions, are treated in detail in
separate publications of the Passenger Department of the Associated Railways. All
that we shall here attempt will be to give, in the following section, an outline of the
principal attractions in Western North Carolina and Northeastern Georgia.
FROM RTCHMOND HILL, LOOKING DOWN THE FRENCH BROAD.
THE MOUNTAIN RESORTS OF WESTERN NORTHCAROLINA.
From Danville, the Virginia Midland Division, being merged into the Richmond
and Danville Railway, pursues its southerly course always upon elevated lands and in
sight of the mountains through Reidsville, High Point, Greensboro' and other attrac-
tive villages to Salisbury, at which point the Western North Carolina Division of the
Richmond and Danville system begins. At Salisbury, and a little further on at Char-
lotte, those who are interested in such matters may profitably study the gold develop-
ment of North Carolina. Salisbury is the residence of Miss Fisher, the novelist ; a
large Federal cemetery is there, and, during the late war, many prisoners were there
confined by the Confederate authorities. It has a population of 3, 500, many stores.
VIRGINIA MIDLAND RAILWAY. 39
churches, and handsome private edifices, and is rapidly growing. The Western North
Carolina Railroad, leaving Salisbury, passes through Third Creek and Elmwoodstations to the prosperous town of Statesville. From Statesville a branch road leads
direct to Charlotte, traversing a fertile country and passing some villages of note and
a watering-place which has a local reputation, but needs development. From States-
ville, going westward to Catawba and Newton, we come to Hickory, a village which
has sprung up of late years in a wooded district, has numerous stores and churches,
two hotels, and is rapidly acquiring repute as a tobacco-manufacturing centre. Before
reaching Hickory, we begin to catch glimpses of the mountains. Brushy Ridge being
on the north, and South Mountain, a quite imposing object, on the south of the line.
In the northwest are the Linnville Mountains, a high range, running parallel with the
Blue Ridge.
VIEW T,0OKING TO\V.\RDS MOORE'S CUT, WESTERN N. C. RR.
THE SPARKLING CATAWBA SPRINGS.Seven miles northeast of Hickory and about the same distance from Conover on
the Western North Carolina Road, are the sparkling Catawba Springs, Dr. E. O.
Elliott, proprietor. Through beautiful meadow grounds runs the noted Sulphur
Springs Creek, its cascades and shady coves joining the waters of the Catawba River at
a picturesque spot some two miles distant. Situated on a ridge, with a northern
exposure, and in the midst of a thick pine grove intermingled with other growths, the
grounds command a splendid view of the mountains that lie westward. In a healthy
section, convenient to many natural resorts on the river or in the forest, and accessible
by an easy road from Hickory, the Catawba Springs have long enjoyed an enviable
reputation. In addition to the principal hotel, there are a number of cabins and
cottages, ranged in a semi-circle and reaching to the castle on the summit of the
grounds, from which a grand view may be obtained. The larger spring— No. i— is
White Sulphur, and has a temperature of 58 degrees ; while that of No. 2, the Blue
Sulphur, though separated from the former by the short space of only 10 feet, is 61
degrees. There is still a third, newly discovered spring, and a bath-house, 25 feet
40 EXCURSION GUIDE TO THE
square, with a depth of 4^ feet, where shower, warm, tepid, cold or plunge baths may
be had at any hour of the day. The curative properties of the water are well attested,
and evidence of their virtue may be had by applying to the proprietor at Hickory or
the Springs.
The second station beyond Hickory is Morganton, the county seat of Burke
County, where, on a noble eminence, stands the new State Asylum for the Insane,
planned on a grand scale, with every modern improvement and convenience. The
magnificent panorama which one may see from the elevated points at Morganton
cannot here be dwelt upon. There are two hotels at Morganton, one of which is
exceedingly well kept.
GLEN ALPINE SPRINGS.Fifteen miles away from Morganton, through shaded mountain highways and
byways, but nearer still from Glen Alpine Station, are the Glen Alpine Springs, a new
and successful applicant for public favor. The size and villa-like beauty of the hotel,
its complete equipment and admirable appointments of every kind, the beautiful and
shapely trees, the rocky footpaths of the glen, Cascade Florence and the lovely vales
with the mountains in the distance, say nothing of the salubrious air and the delicious
water, combine to make Glen Alpine Springs one of the most delightful watering-
places in North Carolina. "The main spring, which has been handsomely inclosed, is
strongly impregnated with minerals, including iron, magnesium, calcium, potassium,
lithium, sodium, chlorine, hydro-chloric acid, hydro-sulphuric acid, carbonic acid gas,"
and its waters are said to afford relief or entire cure in many cases of pulmonary and
scrofulous affections, dyspepsia, bladder and kidney derangements, etc., etc.
PIEDMONT SPRINGS.Twenty miles from Morganton, over a cool forest road, the tourist is led to the
Piedmont Springs, sulphur and chalybeate. These waters are accounted among the
most palatable and powerful mineral waters in the South, and are within easy reach of
VIEW ABOVE henry's STATION, ON THE WESTERN N. C. RR.
VIRGINIA MIDLAND RAILWAY. 4I
the wildest and most interesting mountain scenery in the Appalachian range. Thebest points for excursions to the Roan, the Grandfather, the Falls of Linnville, etc., is
the Piedmont Springs. Comfortable hacks meet the train at Morganton and land
passengers at the springs within four hours. Mr. James Pearcey is the proprietor.
MOUNT MITCHELL.This, the loftiest, and certainly one of the grandest peaks in Western North
Carolina, is accessible by buggy or horse from Henry, thirty miles beyond Glen Alpine
Station. There are numberless other high mountains within range of the Western
North Carolina Railroad, but the ascent of Mount Mitchell seems to be the favorite
excursion for hardy tourists, who are willing to encounter a rough ride and plain fare
for the sake of the beautiful and grand in nature. Any attempt at description of the
scener}' at Mount Mitchell would be out of place here. The reader is referred to the
fascinating pages of Miss Fisher's "Land of the Sky," and Mr. Fdward King's bookon " The Great South."
SWANANNOA GAP.From Henry Station to Swanannoa Gap, where the Western North Carolina Rail-
road crosses the Blue Ridge Mountain, the distance by the old stage road is about 3^miles. The elevation overcome at this point is very great, and is accomplished by
engineering so bold, yet so secure, that the bare sight of it cannot fail to gratify even
those most experienced in such matters. It is indeed a triumph in railway construc-
tion, and there is nothing approaching it this side of Mount Washington. We will not
forestall the reader's enjoyment by so much as an outline of the curves and gradients
over which he will be safely lifted thousands of feet into the very heavens. Suffice
it to say, that this portion of the Western North Carolina Railroad in itself constitutes
an attraction greater than the combined beauties found on half a dozen other roads.
The tunnel, 1,800 feet long, at the summit was but recently completed, and as yet,
hotels, etc., to enable the traveler to remain over and enjoy the wild grandeur
of nature in her sternest mood, are wanting, but these in due time will be supplied.
ALEXANDERS, ON THE FRENCH BROAD.
42 EXCURSION GUIDE OF THE
ASHEVILLE.Upon an elevated range of hills near tiie confluence of the Swanannoa and the
French Broad rivers, and surrounded by hills still higher, is Asheville, the capital of
Western North Carolina, now known and justly celebrated the world over for the
marvelous purity of its atmosphere and for the entrancing beauty of its mountain-
locked landscapes. It has a population of about 3,500, which is rapidly increasing
by accessions literally from all quarters of the globe. Here, again, as at Swanannoa
Gap, we shall refrain from anticipating the great enjoyment that is in store for the
tourist and more particularly for the invalid who makes Asheville his Summer, and
still better, his Winter home. The far-reaching fame of Asheville as a sanitarium for
persons with weak lungs or otherwise debilitated, brings to it each recurring season so
many sojourners that good hotels, boarding-houses and livery stables are a matter of
necessity. Good as these alreatly are, it is certain that in the future they will continue
to improve and keep pace with the times, until they equal in all respects the very best
accommodations to be had at the most frequented resorts of the North and East. The
determination of the railway authorities is to furnish transportation as comfortable,
elegant and luxurious as modern art can contrive, and the feeling of the people
of Asheville, both great and small, is to leave nothing undone that will conduce to the
comfort of the thousands of guests who annually congregate in the beautiful little
mountain city of which they are so proud.
WHITE ROCK IN THE FRENCH BROAD, BELOW MARSHALL.
It remains only to add that the elevation of Asheville above the sea is 2.250 feet,
and that the climate is at once so soft, so dry, and yet so bracing as to fit it not merely
for the temporary lodging of pulmonary invalids, but for their permanent home.
INIany have already found refuge in Asheville from the bitter and humid winds of the
North and Northwest. Some have come even from England to prolong their days in
the sweet sunshine and delicious air of this Arcady of the Western world.
VIRGINIA MIDLAND RAILWAY. 43
LOOKING UP THE FRENCH BROAD, ABOVE WARM SPRINGS.
THE WARM SPRINGS.The Ducktown Division of the Western North Carolina Railroad is now in
rapid course of construction from Asheville to the uncesthetic town first named
near the borders of Georgia. Ten miles from Waynesville on this division are the
White Sulphur Springs. We cannot pause to describe them, and, leaving out of the
account the manifold objects of beauty in and around Asheville, we proceed at once
down the lovely French Broad River to the Warm Springs. The road hugs the river
bank closely all the way, pushing out into it at times, crossing and recrossing it at
various points, and shadowed all the way by lofty mountains, crowned with forests
or cultivated fields, and gray with immemorial rocks. There are many stations
between Asheville and the Warm Springs at which the tourist will be constrained to
linger, so inviting are they, and such hunting and such fishing do they afford. Wecannot linger with him, but hasten on through yawning chasms cloven by the rapid
river in the process of ages, to the Warm Springs, which are in Madison County, about
seven miles from the Tennessee line. A large brick hotel with a noble portico and a
number of cottages, enough to furnish excellent accommodation to six or seven
hundred guests, are situated in beautiful grounds, immediately upon the banks of the
clear, swift river. Other cottages and villas, some of them unusually handsome,
adorn the rounded hills near the hotel inclosure. These are owned by private
individuals. Mountains of varying height, but never varying in the picturesque, and
sometimes approaching the sublime, enfold the hotel and cottages, as if to shut out
intruders from the busy work-day world. But they are not to be kept back. On
account of the sweet seclusion as much almost as for the delicious bath, which works
such wonders upon the rheumatic, the gouty, and others, the Warm Springs have long
been a favorite resort for both sick and well from all parts of the South and Southwest,
and yearly the number of guests is increasing. If the bath at the Warm Springs had
no hygienic properties whatever, the beauties of nature alone would suffice to fill the
hotel and cottages to repletion. Within half an hour's walk are natural charms
44 EXCURSION GUIDE OF THE
enough to satisfy the most exacting ; but when to these is superadded Paint Rock,
Evergreen Island, the BubbHng Springs and a dozen other attractions, there is, indeed,
a feast of loveliness which well might bring satiety, if that were possible.
THE RAPIDS, LOOKING DOWN THE FRENCH BROAD, ABOVE WARM SPRINGS.
THE CLEVELAND MINERAL SPRINGS.
Fifty-four miles west of Charlotte, two miles from Shelby, and only one mile
from the Carolina Central Railway, are the Cleveland Mineral Springs, which for half
a century or more have been known to possess rare medicinal virtues.
Only within the last few years, however, have they been brought prominently
before the public. The services of one of the first chemists in the country have
revealed the fact that they not only surpass many of the popular springs in Virginia,
but in some properties have not their equal in the United States. The springs are
three in number, viz. : The White Sulphur Spring, the Iodine or Red Sulphur Spring,
and the Chalybeate Spring, The waters are specially adapted to dyspepsia, rheu-
matism, rheumatic gout, paralysis, torpid liver, jaundice, dropsy, diseases of the
urinary organs, cutaneous diseases, malarial poison, teething of children, diseases
of females, debility, and anaemia. A number of good comfortable rooms and
cottages, in addition to the large brick hotel, have recently been refurnished, andseveral important improvements have been made in and about the premises. Mr. S.
McBride Poston is proprietor ; Mr. L. S. Williams, of Charlotte, is superintendent,
and L. Alexander, M. D., is resident physician.
NORTHEASTERN GEORGIA.On the line of the Richmond and Danville Railway, in Northeastern Georgia,
the number of watering places, mountain resorts, etc., is very great. Prominentamong these are the New Holland and White Sulphur Springs, near Gainesville
;
Mount Airy, Toccoa and Tallulah Falls, Currahee Mountain, Mount Yonah, etc.
VIRGINIA MIDLAND RAILWAY. 45
A particular description of these resorts, accompanied by many illustrations, not onlv
of the mountain scenes and pleasure places, but of the interesting gold regions of
Georgia as well, will be found in the various publications of the Richmond and Dan-
ville Railroad Company, on application to
A. POPE, Gen'I Passenger Agent,
Richmond, Virginia.
CONCLUSION
WHILE we have treated of these different Pleasure and Health Resorts
to as great a length as our space will permit, this work would be in-
complete without a Tourists' Guide, Ticket Tariff, Through Time Table, List
of Routes and Directory of Agencies, which we furnish our readers on the follow-
ing pages.
The Tourists' Guide for 1882 will enable those whose interest may have
been awakened through perusal of this book to determine what resorts they shall
visit, the Ticket Tariff informing them the exact cost of transportation, and the Time
Table the time occupied in transit.
TOURISTS' GUIDE FOR 1882.
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40.00 40^00 30.00 30.00 25.00 35.00 27.00 25.00 30.00 20.00 25.00 25.00
25
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51
ROUND TRIP TICKETSTO THE
SITJ^JKJSR (JlESORTSUPON THE LINE OF OR REACHED BY THE
VIRGINIA MIDLAND RAILWAY,FOR THE SEASON OF 1882.
Tickets placed on sale June ist, 1882 ; good to Return until October Jisty
1882, inelnsi^'c. Tohe zvitJidraivn from sale October loth, 1882.
NAME OF SPRINGS. ON LINE OF
Afton, VaAbingdon, VaAsheville, N. CBath Alum, VaBig Tunnel, Va ,
Bedford Alum Springs, VaBlue Ridge, VaBuffalo Lythia, VaCapon Springs, VaCold Sulphur Springs, VaCovington, VaChristiansburg, V^a ,
Coyners, VaDaggers Springs, VaDeer Park, MdFauquier White Sulplir Spr'gs. VaGoshen, VaGlade Springs, Va*Glenwood, Va
Healing Springs, V'a
Hot Springs, VaJordan's Springs, Va .
Kanawha Falls, VaLiberty, VaLuray, Va
Millboro', VaMillboro' Springs, VaMorehead City, N. CMountain Lake, INId
Natural Bridge, VaNew River, VaOakland, MdOrkney Springs, VaRawley Springs, VaRockbridge Baths, VaRock Enon, VaRocking Mineral, VaRockbridge Alum, VaRed Sulphur, VaRoanoke, VaRural Retreat, VaSalt Sulphur Springs, VaSalem, VaShenandoah Alum Springs, Va. . .
.
Staunton, VaStriblings Springs, VaSweet Springs, W. VaSweet Chalybeate Springs, Va.. ..
Shawsville, VaWarrenton, VaWarm Springs, N. CM'arm Springs, VaWhite Sulphur Springs, W. VaWytheville, Va
Station for Natural Bridge.
Chesapeake & Ohio Railway. . . .
.
Norfolk & AVestern RailroadWestern North Carolina RailroadChesapeake & Ohio RailwayNorfolk & Western RailroadVirginia Midland RailwayNorfolk & Western RailroadRichmond & Danville Railroad..Valley Branch Bait. & Ohio R. R.Chesapeake & Ohio Railway
Norfolk & Western Railroad.
Richmond & Alleghany RailroadBaltimore & Ohio RailroadVirginia Midland RailwayChesapeake & Ohio RailvvayNorfolk & Western Railroad. . .
.
Shenandoah ^'alley Railway. .
.
" Limited 5 days... .
Chesapeake & Ohio Railway
$19 7530 80
34 4026 15
25 4023 5&23 7527 85
23 6524 7525 65
23 9525 90
$15 7526 8
30 4022 15
21 4019 50
"9 75
23 85
19 6520 7521 65
19 9521 90
Valley Branch Halt. & Ohio R. RChesapeake & Ohio Railway. . .
.
Norfolk & Western Railroad. . .
.
Shenandoah Valley Railroad" Limited 5 days.. . .
.
Chesapeake & Ohio Railway
Midland North Carolina RailroadBaltimore & Ohio RailroadRichmond & Alleghany RailroadNorfolk & Western RailroadBaltimore & Ohio RailroadValley Branch Bait. & Ohio R. R
Richmond & Alleghanv Railroad.\'allev Branch Balt.&Ohio R. R.
Chesapeake & Ohio Railway.
Norfolk & Western Railroad.
Chesapeake & Ohio Railway. . .
.
Norfolk & Western RailroadValley Branch Bait. & Ohio R. R.Chesapeake & Ohio Railway
Norfolk & Western RailroadVirginia Midland RailwayWestern North Carolina RailroadChesapeake & Ohio Railway. . .
.
Norfolk & AVestern Railroad. . .
.
22 8522 4529 15
29
22 7518 9018 60
23 15
24 4032 45
23 6026 25
21 70
23 9525 35
23 9524 IS
30 00
24 3528 65
27 9024 8521 7020 75
24 7526 7526 7525 2016 00
35 5029 15
24 0028 oo;
18 652618 85•8 4525 IS
25 15
|io 1521 2026 8016 5515 80
13 9014 15
14 0515 1516 0514 3516 30
I 7 7518 8024 80
14 15
13 40II 50II 75
24 7518 7514 9014 6c
19 15
20 4028 45
19 6,
17 7019 9521 35
19 9520 15
26 00
23 9020 85
17 70i6 7520 7^22 7522 7521 2012 00
31 50
25 IS20 0024 00
7
1320 55
19 5519 55
19
'3 IS
9 309 00
13 5514 8022 85
14 0016 65
12 10
14 3515 75
14 3514 5522 4014 75
19 0518 3015 2512 10
II 15
15 15
17 15
17 15
15 606 4025 9°19 5514 4018 40
11 6512 7513 65II 9513 90
10 6518 1510 8510 4517 15
17
16 7510 756 906 60
11 IS12 4020 45
9 70II 9513 35
11 9512 1518 0012 3516 65
15 9012 85
9 708 75
12 7514 7514 7513 20
4 00
23 5017 15
12 0016 00
12 4518 40
7 055 00
7 305 60
7 5515 15
4
15 4510 go
9 25
15 308 40
9 50
I 7 7512 70
14 15
7 30
5 65
II 80
9 60
4 409 208 90
19
IS 65
5 25
7 9015 65II 3513 60
7 0013 10
13 60
6 0010 30
6 50II 35
6 8s3 80
20 25
7
7 40
13 9013 9012 60
13 50
12 1511 85
7 90
9 15
17 0018 60
16 10
16 608 90
14 75
12 45
14 35
9 50
9 50II 50II 50
6 7517 3013 909 50
18 6011 6512 75
7 555 857 80
21 6511 0010 6512 05
17 IS
17 IS
15 9016 7S4 65
15 4"15 1011 1512 40
21 905 508 15
21 90I- 6519 907 25
19 4019 9012 1518 006 2510 5515 756 75
17 658 7512 7514 7514 757 1010 00
17 IS12 759 90
tRates from Alexandria, Va., fi.oo less than Washington.
52
CONDENSED SCHEDULE—AND-
THROUGH CAR SERVICE.Via
Charlottesville & C. & 0. R.R.
53
ROUTES.
FROINI SAVANNAH, GA.
Tickets from Jacksonville and Fernandina,
Fla., via Same Route.
To Vir;^inia Springs on C. ami O. R. R.
No. I. Via Auijusla, Columbia, Charlotte, Dan-ville, Lynchburg, Charlottesville and C.
and O. Railway ; returning same route.
No. 2. Via Macon, Atlanta, Charlotte, Danville,
Lynchburg, Charlottesville and C. andO. Railroad ; returning same route.
To Virginia Springs on N. and W. R. R.
No. 3. Same as route No. i to Lynchburg, thenceN. and W. Railroad ; returning sameroute.
No. 4, Same as route No. 2 to Lynchburg, thenceN. and W. Railroad ; returning sameroute.
FROM CHARLESTON, S. C.
To Virginia Springs on C. and O. R. R.
No. 5. Via Columbia, thence as per route No. i.
To Virginia Springs mt N, and W. R. R.
No. 6. Via Columbia, thence same as No. 3.
FROM AUOUSTA, GA., AND COLUMBIA,S. C.
Tickets from Macon, Ga., via Same Routes.
To Virginia Springs on C. and O. R. R.
No. 7. Same as route No. i.
FROM ATLANTA, GA.
The routes from Atlanta to the various Summerjioints herein named are equally applicable fromMacon, Columbus, Montgomery, Mobile, Pensa-cola, Selma, New Orleans and all Texas points,
for all of which places the route via Atlanta andCharlotte is many miles the shortest.
To J'irginia Springs on C. and O. R. R.
No. 8. Via Charlotte, Danville, Charlottesville
and C. and O. Railroad ; returningsame route.
ROUTES FROMTo AsJuT'illc and Westt-rn Nor/h Carolina Points
on IV. N. C. R. R.
No. ia. Fron^ Washington, via Lvnchburg, Dan-ville, Salisbury and W. N. C. R. R.
;
returning same route.
No. 2 A. Same as No. ia to Salisbury, thence via
Charlotte, Spartanburg and A. and S.
R. R. (stage between Hendersonvilleand Asheville) ; returning same routes.
To White SulpJiitr a\id Other Springs on C. andO. R. R.
No. 3A. From Washington, same as route No.
EASTERN CITIES.
I A to Charlottesville, thence by C. and O. R. R.
To Alontgotnery, IVhite and Other Springs on
N. and IV. R. R.
No. 4A. From Washington, same as route No.I A to Lynchburg, thence by N. andW. R. R.
To Natural Bridge and Otlier Points on R. attd
A. R. R.
No. 5A. Same as No. lA to Lynchburg, thence
by R. and A. R. R.
dp54
DIRECTORY OF AGENCIESWHERE THROUGH TICKETS ARE SOLD, INFORMATION GIVEN, TIME CARDS
FURNISHED AND SLEEPING-CAR BERTHS AND SECTIONS RESERVED
TO ALL POINTS IN OR VIA THE VIRGINIA MIDLAND RAILWAY.
NORTHERN.In Boston—At Office, 306 Washington Street
(adjoining Old Soutli Cliurch) ; 205, 211, 214and 232 Washington Street
; 3 Old State
House ; at offices of all New York lines,
and all the principal railroad ticket offices in
the East.
In Nkw York—At Offices, 5 West Union Squareand 229 Broadway (opposite New Post Office)
;
849 and 315 Broadway ; No. I Astor House;
at the office of the New York Transfer Com-pany, 944 Broadway ; and at the offices of
the Pennsylvania R. R. Company, foot of
Cortlandt and Desbrosses Streets.
In Brooklyn—At Dodd's Express, No. 4 CourtStreet, and Brooklyn Anne.x Depot, foot of
Fulton Street.
In Jersey City— At Pennsylvania Railroad
Depot.
In Philadelphia— At 838, iioo and 1348Chestnut Street, and at Pennsylvania Rail-
road Depot, Broad Street.
In Baltimore—At Office, northeast and south-
east corner Baltimore and Calvert Streets;
Depot Baltimore and Potomac Railroad ; also
at Niagara Falls, Buffalo, Canandaigua,Syracuse, Elmira and all intermediate points
on Northern Central Railroad.
In Washington—At Office, 601 PennsylvaniaAvenue ; corner Sixth Street and Pennsyl-vania Avenue ; Thirteenth Street and Penn-sylvania Avenue ; Depot Alexandria &ndFredericksburg Railway.
In Richmond—At Depot Richmond and Dan-ville Railroad ; or at Garber & Co.'s, 1000Main Street, and Exchange Hotel.
And at Coupon Ticket Offices of all prominentNorthwestern, Middle and Eastern States
railways.
SOUTHERN.In San Antonio, Texas—At Galveston, Har-
risburg and San Antonio Railroad Depot andTicket Office.
In Galveston, Texas—At Galveston, Houstonand Henderson Railroad Depot and TicketOffice, and Morgan Line Steamers Office.
In Houston, Texas—At Texas and New OrleansRailroad Depot and Ticket Office.
In New Orleans, La.—Ticket Agent New Or-leans and Mobile Railroad Office, corner
Camp and Common Streets, opposite City
Hotel ; also Office of R. and D. Line, 146Common Street, and at Depot of N. O. andM. Railroad.
In Mobile, Ala.— Mobile and Montgomery Rail-
road Office, Battle House, and M. and M.Railroad Depot.
In Vjcksburg—At Depot Vicksburg and Mer-idian Railroad.
In Selma, Ala.— At Selma and MontgomeryRailroad Depot.
In Montgomery, .A.la.—At Western Railroad
Depot.
In CoLfMBUS, Ga. — At Depot SouthwesternRailroad and Western Railroad of Alabama.
In Atlanta, Ga.-—At Richmond and Danville
Railroad and Georgia Railroad Ticket Offices,
Union Depot.
In Macon, (Va.—At Depot of Georgia Central
and Macon and Augusta Railroads, andUnion Ticket Office, Mulberry Street.
In St. Augustine, Fla.—At Railroad Ticket
Office ; F. J. Ballard, St. George Street.
In Jacksonville, Fla.—At Ticket Offices Savan-nah, Florida and Western Railway.
In Athens, Ga.—At Georgia Railroad Depot,and Depot Northeastern Railroad of Georgia.
In Savannah, Ga.—Wm. Bren, 22 Bull Street,
Special Ticket Agent ; H. L. Schreiner,
Agent, Congress Street (opposite JohnsonScjuare) ; Depot of Georgia Central Railroad,
and Ticket Office Charleston and SavannahRailway, S. F. & W. Railway Depot.
In Augusta, Ga.—At Ticket Office, Union Depot.
In Aiken, S. C—At Ticket Office, HighlandPark Hotel.
In Columbia, S. C.—At Charlotte, Columbiaand Augusta Railroad Depot.
In Charleston, S. C.—At Office, 109 East BayStreet ; Asa Butterfield, Charleston Hotel
:
and Depot South Carolina Railroad.
In Charlotte, N. C.—At Depot of Richmondand Danville Railroad.
In Raleigh, N. C.—At Depot of Richmond andDanville Railroad.
In Goldsboro, N. C.—At Depot of Richmondand Danville Railroad.
A>id all principal Railroad Stations and Ticket
Offices in the South.
.1 : -a: -a